


You Are The Wolf (And I Am The Moon)

by AlexiaBlackbriar13



Series: Wolves Chasing Starlings [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode: s01e14 The Odyssey, Episode: s01e15 Dodger, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Hyper-Vigilance, Inspired by Teen Wolf (TV), Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sentimental Attachment, Serious Injuries, Team Arrow, Team Dynamics, Vigilantism, Werewolves Turn Into Actual Wolves, Wolf Pack, Wolves, joining the team, season 1 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-13 07:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4512360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/pseuds/AlexiaBlackbriar13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>All of a sudden, Oliver’s eyes flashed open. Felicity jumped backwards with a silent scream, eyes wide and jaw dropping. Oliver’s eyes burned a bright, golden amber, and a wild snarl erupted from his chest as he bared his teeth, no, his fangs, leaping upwards and rolling off the gurney. <i></i></i>
</p><hr/><p>Oliver Queen returned from his five years of hell a changed man, and not only changed in mentality.</p><p>Felicity didn't know what she was expecting when she found the Starling City vigilante bleeding out in the backseat of her car, but she certainly wasn't expecting him to be a werewolf.</p><p>
  <b> AU following Season 1 episodes     -      still on hiatus? sort of? idk tbh </b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Odyssey

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I should be working on 'Building Foundations', but this simply wouldn't leave me alone.
> 
> I recently completed a massive marathon of Teen Wolf, and with all the little wolves running around in my mind, I thought up this. It's slightly crazy, and not realistic, but I needed to put this down somewhere so my brain could take a break.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it. Any comments and criticism are greatly appreciated. I am as of yet unsure whether to make this into a 'Verse or series. I have other ideas swimming around in my head, but any other suggestions for ideas would be great and any feedback would be great!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver Queen was a werewolf.
> 
> He was also the nut-job bow-wielding vigilante that leapt around Starling City's rooftops.
> 
> And he had completely ruined the backseats of Felicity's Mini Cooper. (He was paying for that)

Felicity was terrified, thrilled, excited and confused all at once. She had Oliver Queen, the Oliver Queen, also known, she had just found out, as the Hood, Starling City’s crazy bow-weilding nut-job vigilante, passed out in the back seat of her Mini Cooper. Her heart beating a hundred times a minute inside her chest, her breath short and stuttery as she tried desperately not to think about the amount of blood that the bullet wound in his shoulder was causing to spill out all over Oliver’s green leather and Felicity’s car seats, the IT girl drove towards the billionaire’s nightclub as fast as she could without actually breaking the law or being arrested.

When she arrived at the club, it was teaming with drunk, arrogant rich teenagers. Disgusted, she quickly drove around to the back and parked her Mini in the shadows next to a load of dumpsters, clambering out and rushing to open the back doors to check that her bleeding passenger wasn’t dead.

Satisfied Oliver was still alive, she tried to heave him up into her arms, but utterly failed. “Oh my _god_ , this has got to be steriods, those muscles cannot be actually properly real.” Realising that she wasn’t going to be able to move the vigilante on her own, she sighed and pointed a finger at the unconscious archer accusingly. “You’re too heavy to carry, you’re ruining my car and now you’ve got blood all over my cardigan.” Looking around, she closed the back door and whispered through the window, despite the fact Oliver couldn’t hear anything, “Wait here, I’ll go into your secret lair thing and get help. Don’t go anywhere. Who am I kidding, you can’t…”

Still rambling to herself, she entered the code on the reinformed door and rushed to grab Diggle for help. Between the two of them, they were able to manoeuvre the archer down the stairs to the back entrance, lift him up onto a metal gurney and wheel him into the main room of the Foundry, where Felicity was instantly fully able to take in the vigilante’s set-up, with the salmon ladder, racks of arrows and - oh god, that computer system physically hurt her on the inside. Did Oliver set that up purely to offend her? 

“He’s not healing,” Diggle was saying from behind, fussing over IVs and a heart monitor. Felicity turned around and braced her hands on the gurney, staring down at the unconscious archer. “He should be healing, this isn’t right, he shouldn’t be loosing this much blood. How long ago was he shot?” 

Realising he was addressing her, Felicity blushed and spluttered out, “Oh, er, I’m not sure. However long it took me to drive here plus maybe ten minutes or so? So, like, twenty minutes ago?" 

That only made the military man look more concerned as he stuck an IV needle into Oliver’s arm and checked his pupils and pulse again. From that much blood loss, Oliver wouldn’t be waking up for a while. “Damn, he should have fully healed by now. Something must be seriously wrong.” 

“Healed by now?” Felicity repeated incredulously. Were all the people Oliver associated with crazy? Wait, that would include herself… the vigilante and his whole team were full of wackos. “Er, I don’t know which dimension you’re living in, or on which planet, but in this dimension, on this Earth, it takes people normally around two months to heal a bullet wound, and that’s with a super high metabolism and a lot of antibiotics that you clearly do not have here, in this wonderfully grimy and dirty steel-factory basement and _what are you doing?_ ” 

“Actually it’s a nightclub basement now.” Diggle was digging around with a pair of tweezers in the bullet wound, wiping away the blood with a wetwipe every few seconds to clear his site. Oliver remained blissfully unaware and Felicity only hoped that whatever was going on inside the archer’s head, it was something good and he wasn’t feeling the pain of somebody prodding in his shoulder. “And from what I can tell, the bullet’s still in his shoulder and I need to get it out.” He glanced up. “You look a little pale, maybe you should take a step back and sit down. I can handle this.” 

“Nuh uh, no _way_.” Felicity shook her head erratically, stepping forwards and taking hold of the packet of wetwipes, taking over that job automatically. “I’m going to be useful and help you save the guy who appeared bleeding in the backseat of my car, no protests. And you look like you could use a second pair of hands, no offense, because I don’t think a first aid course covers a bleeding bullet wound. Well, maybe a military one does, and you look like a military guy so you probaby have military first aid training - not, not that I was trying to imply that -” 

“Felicity,” the man interrupted, his eyebrows raised. “Calm down. In this instance, you’re right, I do have military first aid training.” Diggle continued poking and prodding in the torn flesh with his tweezers before his expression warped into one of realisation. “Ah, here’s the cause of our problem.” With a swift pull, he yanked an intact shiny silver bullet out of Oliver’s shoulder. “There we go. Get me a cup of antiseptic, would you?” 

Felicity filled a disposable plastic cup of the nasty vile stuff and Diggle dropped the bullet into it, cleaning it off. It became much clearer that it wasn’t an ordinary bullet, and Felicity frowned thoughtfully. Was that… made from silver? Who made bullets from silver? Wouldn’t that be expensive and impractical? 

“Some people have fetishes for that sort of thing,” Diggle replied, and Felicity blushed again when she realised her last thought process must have been aloud. “In this case though, whoever shot him must be extremely dangerous to possess silver bullets. A silver bullet in the shoulder can injure any normal human being, but to someone like Oliver…” He ran a hand over his face. “If we hadn’t got that out of him in time, he would have been poisoned; it would have contaminated his blood stream, shut down his cells and before we knew it, organ failure and death would have followed.” 

Felicity swallowed. “Someone like Oliver?” she repeated. 

Diggle didn’t elaborate, merely waggling his eyebrows at her. Felicity settled down in front of Oliver’s computer set up and, swearing that she would replace those monitors if her life depended on it, spoke with Oliver’s associate about his List, his mission, his bow, his killing people thing. It was absolutely fascinating that Oliver thought it was his duty to Starling to tear down the villainous one-percenters, but also terrifying to think that the man who had been bleeding out in her car had killed dozens of people. 

After a few hours had passed, Diggle immediately stood up when a deep rumbling sounded throughout the Foundry. Felicity followed the man, baffled, and soon became even more confused when she figured that the rumbling was being emited by Oliver’s throat. His heart beat was increasing from the heart monitor, and his fingers were twitching minutely. 

What really struck Felicity was the fact that Oliver’s bullet wound had healed. _Completely_. In just a few hours. There was a scar, of course, but other than that, the flesh had closed completely and it looked clean. How was that even possible? 

All of a sudden, Oliver’s eyes flashed open. Felicity jumped backwards with a silent scream, eyes wide and jaw dropping. Oliver’s eyes burned a bright, golden amber, and a wild snarl erupted from his chest as he bared his teeth, no, his fangs, leaping upwards and rolling off the gurney. He fell into a crouch and another feral growl erupted as the archer glanced around warily. 

“Calm it, man, it’s just me,” Diggle told him quietly, putting his hands in the air placatingly, bowing by the waist slightly to show he wasn’t a threat. His eyes flickered to Felicity, ordering her to move backwards to give Oliver the space he needed. “No need to wolf out on us.” 

“ _Us?_ ” Oliver growled, his eyes still glowing amber, his tongue delicately cleaning his fangs. Felicity took a tiny step back again, shocked, and Oliver’s head snapped towards her at the small movement, sensing and hearing her. His eyes faded back to blue and he said softly, “Felicity…” 

“I’m seriously wigged out right now,” she squeaked. “Because oh my god, you’re a _werewolf_ , werewolves exist, this is crazy and I don’t - I don’t -” She sat down in the monitor chair with a thump, wringing her hands. “Right. Er… Expecting explanation. Wanting explanation. Seriously, _really_ need an explantation.” 

Oliver heaved a sigh and leant back on the gurney, shooting Diggle a look. The man must of understood, because he moved away from the pair of them to wipe down the workstation. Oliver’s fangs retracted and his tense muscles relaxed. 

“I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I never wanted you to get involved in this…” 

“Oh, the vigilante-ing?” Felicity waved her hand blatantly. “Nah. Not bothered about that. Called that from the very beginning. What I really am bothered about is that the guy I just saved from bleeding out from the shoulder happens to be a _frigging werewolf_.” 

Oliver looked surprised, his eyes widening slightly as he said, quietly and sounding confused, “You mean you’re not… scared of me?” 

Felicity deflated. Oliver had struck her directly in the heart with that one. She couldn’t very well remain angry at a man who thought that his very existence would be enough to terrify people. “No, I - Oliver, I’m not scared of you! I just want to know what the frack is going on, considering -” She waved one hand at him wildly. “Well, considering you’re a werewolf!” 

Oliver blinked. “First of all, I’m not a werewolf. Calling me that is a little insulting. So please don’t. And secondly -” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You knew I was the vigilante?” 

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” Felicity said flatly. “But laptops do not procure bullet holes from lattes, billionaire scavenger hunts are not usually building plans concerning assassinations and energy drinks are not stored in syringes. Those were some of the worst lies I have ever heard in my life. And I lived in Vegas.” 

“I was proud of the scavenger hunt one,” Oliver said, with a small smile. 

“Honestly, that one was probably the worst. Only because that was when you revealed you never studied Shakespeare. Seriously, Oliver,” Felicity leant forwards. “Everybody has, sometime in their life, studied Shakespeare. That just made me ashamed of you.” She bit her lip and swallowed. “Back to the point. Werewolves. Or not-werewolves. It is lycanthropy, right?” 

Oliver tilted his head. “Not exactly. Your definition is probably different to mine. But in simple terms, yes, I am a lycanthope, or as I prefer, a wolf-shifter.” 

“So you can -” Felicity lifted her hands up in imitation of claws and gave a hilarious ‘grr’ impression. “- wolf out, as Mr Diggle referred to it?” 

“Turn into a wolf?” Oliver looked amused at her. “Yes, I can. I can also heal at an extremely accelerated rate and I have all the enhanced senses of a wolf. But turning into a wolf is the highlight.” His smile fell. “But I’m the only one. There were others, but they’re dead. I’m the only lycanthrope who can shift now.” 

Now Felicity was even more confused. “How can you be a lycanthrope but not shift into wolf?” she questioned. 

Diggle chuckled from the corner as he strode back towards them, carrying three cups and pitcher of water, setting it down on the monitor table and pouring them all glasses. “Aw, man, this is gonna be fun for you to explain,” he told Oliver, taking a gulp of water. 

Oliver shot his partner a glare before turning back to Felicity, pursing his lips and crossing his arms. “Lycanthropy is a gene,” he explained. “It can be passed down genetically, through families, or can be transferred.” 

“Transferred how?” Felicity gratefully took her own cup of water. 

Oliver shrugged. “Mostly by body fluids; blood, saliva, semen, that sort of thing. That’s where the biting myth came from, I suppose. There’s a twelve percent chance of passing the gene on through the body fluid.” He clasped his hands. “This ability to be able to shift - that was because of experimentation, forcing evolution of the gene. That’s only me. But lycanthropy, excluding me, isn’t about transforming into a wolf. It’s about behaviour.” 

Felicity’s eyes widened. “So… agressiveness, attacking other people… that sort of thing? They express wolf-like habits and tendencies.” She snapped her fingers. “Gangs, like packs. The whole territorial dispute thing. Wow, this makes _much_ more sense than I’d pictured…” 

Oliver nodded. “Among other things, yes. In our world today, you could probably estimate that maybe ten percent of our population has lycanthropy.” 

Felicity swallowed. “That’s a hell of a lot of people.” 

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” Oliver commented, glancing at Diggle. “I wouldn’t worry about it though. Around half of those people don’t even know they have the gene. And those who do know they have it, in half of them, it’s lying dormant.” 

Felicity nodded in understanding. “Right, so we only have to worry about 2.5 percent of the world’s populating being werewolves - I mean lycanthropes. Can I please just call them werewolves, it’s a lot, lot easier for my mind to process.” 

Oliver chuckled. “Okay, fine. Yeah, you’re right, only two and a half percent.” He sobered. “But most of them are dying out. Lycanthropy is very slowly becoming extinct.” It was hard to tell where his opinion on this information lay. “The gene gives us certain… weaknesses, you see.” 

Felicity pointed at him. “The silver bullet.” 

Oliver smiled, seemingly impressed and glad she had caught on so quickly, and wasn’t denying or arguing. “Yeah, silver’s one weakness. It burns our flesh, poisons our blood, shuts down cells. Wolfsbane is also fatal to our kind. But not many wolves actually end up ingesting silver or coming into contact with wolfsbane.” 

“So how are they dying out so quickly?” 

“You ask all the right questions,” Oliver said. Sighing, he informed her simply, all his emotion conveyed into one word: “Hunters.” 

“... _Oh my god_.” 

“I know.” Oliver grimaced. “Not many people know about the lycanthropy mutation gene, but some who do, don’t like it. Don’t like it at all. They track, hunt down and kill any lycanthropes they can find, the more the better. Actually, hunter initiation involves capturing, torturing and then sacrificing a lycanthrope. You probably wouldn’t be surprised at how many psychopaths end up hunting.” 

“God, that’s barbaric,” Felicity gasped, horrified. She paled even further. “Oliver, your mother -” 

“Had silver bullets in a handgun under her desk.” Oliver carefully schooled his expression into one of hardness. “Which means she’s either a hunter herself, or she knows a hunter. I’m going to have to be careful. And I’m going to need help.” Suddenly, his expression changed. “Wait, I was shot in my mom’s office, there would have been blood, I’ll have to -” 

Felicity clapped her hands. “Oh! Right! The police collected a sample of your blood at Queen Consolidated.” She tapped the screen of his monitor. “While you were asleep, I hacked the crime lab and ordered the sample destroyed.” She grinned, shrugging. “Oops.” 

“Wow.” Oliver smiled. “You're practically an honorary member of the team already.” 

“So Mr Diggle said.” Felicity nodded. 

“Which brings me to the question -” He stood up and towered over her, his face hopeful and cold and calculating and curious all at the same time. A streak of amber flew through the blue of his eyes for a moment. “Does this mean you’re in?” 

Felicity rubbed her hands together, nervously shuffling. “You mean in as in I'm going to join your crusade?” Oliver nodded. Felicity took a deep breath. “No.” 

Oliver tilted his head, looking a little confused, as if requesting an explanation for her answer. 

“Okay, look.” Felicity laid it out straight. “I want to find Walter.” 

Oliver narrowed his eyes. “My stepfather?” 

Felicity nodded eagerly, before she looked down at her hands, less confident. “He was nice to me.” She glanced up at the archer, raising an eyebrow. “And Mr. Diggle told me that the notebook you use to fight crime is the same notebook that got Walter abducted.” That caused Oliver to look slightly sheepish. “I'll help you rescue him, but that's it. Then I want to go back to my boring life of being an IT girl. That's my offer.” She hurried to add, “Not that I won’t help you with the whole wolf-shifter thing because, really, that’s awesome and I’m a fan of the supernatural, so it would be an honour to help you out with that sort of stuff. But the vigilante-ing isn’t the job for me.” 

Oliver gazed at her intently for a minute, and his nostrils flared; Felicity realised he must be scenting her, trying to figure out whether or not she was sincere. She wondered whether or not he could smell emotions. She had heard of the whole idea behind chemo-signals, and the fact that scientists thought that animals could sense them. It would be really interesting to know if that was true or not. 

The wolf inhaled and exhaled slowly and then gave a quick sharp nod. “Okay.” 

Before he could turn away, Felicity swiftly added, “Oh, and I have one condition.” 

Oliver exchanged a glance with Diggle before shruggling and saying, “Name it.” 

“You have to let me replace your system,” the blonde stated bravely, facing up to the archer seriously and walking backwards so she could place a hand on his monitor. “Because no offense, but your system looks like it’s from the eighties, and not the good part of the eighties, like Madonna and, well,” She grimaced. “- legwarmers.” 

“It's a lot of work,” Oliver told her slowly. “It’ll take a long time, and a lot of money, not that I can’t provide you with any funds you need. Are you sure you want to?” 

Felicity placed a hand on her chest. “Seeing a network this poorly set up hurts me. _In my soul._ You need to let me do this, Oliver. I won’t work with you if you don’t let me. I’ll be in physical pain whenever I enter this basement if I don’t.” 

Oliver was grinning at her, and Diggle was staring at him like he had grown a third head. Maybe Oliver didn’t smile that often. She could tell he was one of those brooding closed-off types. 

“Okay,” he said, sounding amused. “You can set up the new network.” 

She gave a little fist punch of the air. Satisifed he had agreed, she shifted uncomfortably and asked, “What’s your wolf form like then? Just so that, you know, if I come down here one night and find a big furry canine with big teeth napping under the desk, I won’t freak out.” 

Oliver cracked a smile at that and tapped the counter, thinking. “I’m big. Bigger than any normal wolf anyway. My head comes up to -” He looked around, as if trying to find something to compare himself to. “ - Diggle’s waist. And my fur is sort of…” He scrunched up his nose. “... Sandy brown, kind of tawny over my sides. Over my shoulder and back I have a dark brownish, black mantle that runs all the way down my spine to the end of my tail, and I have blackish socks on my paws as well.” 

Felicity looked fascinated. “I’m not going to ask you to shift for me or anything now, because I can tell you’re tired and need to get some sleep, but… will you show me sometime?” 

“Sure,” Oliver answered easily. Diggle shot him a look from the side, looking stunned. “I have to tell you, I’m surprised. All you’ve smelled off since you’ve found out is curiosity, maybe a little wariness. No fear or anything at all.” 

“Well, I grew up loving science fiction and fantasy, so werewolves isn’t really a new thing for me,” Felicity shrugged. Then she gasped and pointed at him, coming to a realisation. “Ha! I knew it! You can sense chemo-signals.” 

Now Oliver was the one to look curious. “You know about chemo-signals?” 

“It’s one of the things scientists are always debating about; you know, whether or not animals can sense our emotions and stuff. One of the running theories is that emotions have different scents.” Felicity clapped her hands, beaming. “So, am I not far off?” 

“Mostly spot on,” Oliver nodded, impressed and grinning. “As well as everybody having their own individual scents, they have chemo-signals they send out as well. Scenting them out means I can tell whether somebody’s telling the truth, lying, under pressure, being manipulated.” He spread his hands out to wave at the surrounding shelves of arrows and equipment. “Comes in handy when you’re a vigilante.” 

“I’ll say.” Felicity nodded and then said nervously, “So I've been meaning to ask…” She paused awkwardly and then rushed out, “Is there a bathroom? 'Cause I've had to pee since I got here.” 

Oliver chuckled. “It's upstairs to the left.” 

“Okay,” Felicity nodded hurriedly, turning away with another brief smile, glancing back once, before she hurtled up the metal stairs to the bathroom. 

The wolf watched her leave with a spark of interest and curiosity in his eyes. He found the blonde IT girl absolutely fascinating; Felicity was just so easy to be himself around, in the like that he had never, ever felt that way around a human before, or even another wolf. Even her scent was comforting; lavender and vanilla and honey, immediately memorised. 

However, the moment was broken, and his gaze on where Felicity had disappeared snapped when the sharp scent of gun oil and sweat and spice assaulted him from behind. Oliver felt a low growl rumbling at the back of his throat, but held it back as Diggle stepped directly in front of him, arms crossed, eyebrows raised, a very disapproving look plastered on his face. 

“Oliver, I know you don't want to hurt this girl and you didn't have any choice in telling her who you really are, but we're asking her to get involved in some pretty dangerous stuff.” 

A fierce sense of protectiveness swamped the wolf’s mind and Oliver bared his teeth before he said, firmly and surely, “We can protect her.” 

“How?” Diggle demanded. “Your mother just _shot you_ , Oliver. You can't even keep yourself safe. And this girl - this one - she’s different to you. Different than Thea and Laurel.” And he pointed back towards where Felicity had vanished. “Don’t pretend you didn’t notice, Oliver. The very moment you looked at her, you zoned out. Like she was the only person in the universe.” 

The held-back growl was released. “What are you trying to insinuate, Diggle?” 

“This girl, Oliver...” Diggle looked pleading. “Not only are we putting her in danger because of the vigilante stuff and the lycanthrope stuff - because you didn’t even get started there on pack dynamics and trust me, you _will_ talk to her about that - but she’s going to put _you_ in danger too.” 

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” Oliver snarled back, throwing his arms into the air. 

“Really, Oliver? You lose your focus when she’s around.” 

“How can you even tell? I only spoke to her for fifteen minutes!” Oliver protested. 

“And I knew it in five.” The larger, buffer man leant forwards, intending to back the wolf up into a smaller corner. It was the subconscious alpha instinct that caused Oliver to rear his head and press back, eyes flashing amber. “What happens when you’re in the field and Felicity causes you to snap out of vigilante mode? I’m telling you Oliver…” He shook his head. “Either we’re gonna get her killed, or she’s gonna get you killed.” 

“Enough!” Oliver shouted, putting alpha power behind the words. His amber eyes for a moment turned blood red. Even though Diggle wasn’t a lycanthrope, he still felt the urge to submit to the wolf. Finally, he backed down. “There are more important things at hand here.” 

“Right, Oliver.” Diggle swallowed. “Of course.” 

“Thank you,” the wolf replied, calming slightly. “Now, we’ve established my mother doesn’t know anything about…” 

His mouth continued to spew out mission debriefs and new plans, but his mind was in another place. Because deep down in his gut, he knew that his partner was right. 

Felicity was different. It was as if the room had lit up as soon as she had come into focus, and the wolf’s instincts had began to sing in joy upon seeing her. Oliver had, in the split second of catching sight of her, claimed her for the pack. He had, without even realising what he had been doing, taken responsibility for her safety. 

Felicity Smoak was now under his protection. 

Oliver Queen was in a hell of a lot of trouble. 


	2. Dodger (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was Felicity's first night working for Team Arrow, and things weren't going well.
> 
> And by weren't going well, she meant that things were going disastrously.
> 
> But what did she expect? She was, after all, signing on to help a handsome brooding werewolf vigilante shoot arrows into bad guys.
> 
> (It was the abs. She couldn't stop staring at the abs...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since there was so much positive feedback, I have decided to continue this! As long as the muse holds, I will be re-writing the whole of Season 1 into my AU. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Really appreciate all your lovely comments and advice. :) Thanks!

It was Felicity’s first night in the Lair as an official member of Team Arrow, and she already considered herself absolutely and positively screwed. She was seated in what she had immediately dubbed as her chair in front of the, in her opinion, ancient and insulting computer and monitor set-up Oliver had going; when she had initially walked in earlier that evening, Oliver had been waiting. He was already half dressed in his vigilante gear, wearing his dark green leather pants and a simple black t-shirt, his hooded jacket hanging off of a chair. His calculating blue eyes followed her every movement and at one point, when Felicity had almost fallen down the stairs and tripped over, she thought she saw his lips turn upwards in a small smile. Good, she told herself, as one of the things she had promised to herself was to make Oliver smile more often. It was obvious that her presence sparked a little light inside of him, made him ease up slightly.

Oliver had handed her a limitless credit card for her to spend money on buying new screens and whatever she needed to built a new set-up. Felicity had felt like cackling madly, because that was possibly the worst thing Oliver could have done, letting a tech nerd have free reign with a limitless credit card, but seeing how intense Oliver’s expression was, she had just nodded with a smile, before settling in front of a screen and beginning some research on Walter Steele, and looking into some Queen Consolidated files.

But then Oliver had shed his shirt to reveal ripped muscles and picked up two Eskrima sticks. It was obvious to both Felicity and Diggle in that moment that the wolf had a lot of steam he wanted to let off, because Oliver attacked the training dummies with the viciousness of his shifted form, teeth gritted and body moving fluidly, sometimes small growls or grunts breaking from his lips as he mercilessly pounded the sticks onto the dummy. His attacks were so quick and clean that Felicity openly marvelled at them - and she didn’t just marvel at the attacks.

Oliver was a hottie, she knew that the moment she had looked up and saw him in her office that day they met. But damn, that man knew how to make a girl stare. Felicity tried to keep her concentration on the computer screens, but every once in a while, her eyes would subconsciously wander upwards and she found herself ogling the wolf’s abs or broad shoulders again.

Diggle stood about a metre away with a pair of spare Eskrima sticks in his hands; his eyebrows had shot up a long while ago, and had stayed there, and Felicity wondered for a moment if he was as impressed as she was at Oliver’s blatant display of his vigilante skills, but then the blonde figured that Diggle probably watched Oliver do this all the time, and then worked out that the look Digg was shooting the wolf was definitely one where he was unimpressed.

After fifteen minutes of solid working, Oliver took a quick breather, his hands falling to his sides, the Eskrima sticks gripped tightly in his gloves hands.

“You might want to take it easy if you plan on taking someone off that list tonight,” Diggle suggested wryly.

Oliver gave a soft snarl that made Felicity jump slightly and growled back, “This is me taking it easy.” Then, in one quick movement, he bent the stick around one arm of the training dummy and snapped it in half.

Felicity blinked, wide-eyed, but seeing as Diggle didn’t say anything about it, she also decided that it would be best to stay silent. But then Oliver caught her look, and his eyes softened slightly, like they always did when he gazed at her. “Hey, I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “Adrenalin.”

“Do you, er…” Felicity stammered slightly. She looked sideways at Diggle. “Does he do this sort of stuff often?”

Diggle smirked. “Every night.”

“Lucky me,” Felicity muttered under her breath, and then she blushed when she remembered the wolf superhearing. Oliver’s eyebrows had quirked. “I - I mean - your body’s really quite, um… you’re really big. Not big, that’s not - I mean, you know, you’re fit and muscular and - and -”

Oliver seemed to take pity on her, and he had managed a tight grin. “Nice to know that the bad guys aren’t the only people who get to appreciate my muscles.”

Diggle’s jaw dropped and Felicity gaped. “You… just made a joke.”

Oliver’s expression neutralised. “I do that sometimes.” He turned away, grabbing a towel from the counter beside the salmon ladder. By the time he had turned back around, he had transformed back into brooding-cold-glary-Oliver, his eyes hiding his emotions again.

Diggle sighed slightly and turned to his partner. “So who's our lucky guy tonight?”

Oliver didn’t even bother stripping off his gloves as he wiped sweat off his biceps and arms with a towel. “Ken Williams. His pyramid scheme stole millions. People didn't just lose their homes. Their lives are ruined.”

As soon as Oliver had announced the name, Felicity had grimaced. She had joined the team to find Walter, sure, but Oliver obviously had that list he was so fixed on. Quickly, Felicity started looking up the name and as soon as her searches for ‘Ken Williams’ appeared on screen, she blanced in horror. The man had lost his wife to cancer, leaving him widowed, and his kid motherless. Ken had a ten year old son called Johnny, whom he apparently spent all his free time with; Ken even coached his son’s soccer team. The worst part of it? Was that this information was all from a dating website. Felicity felt terrible; the man had written that he wanted to get back into the dating world so he could meet somebody nice with kids, so his son wasn’t lonely.

Meanwhile, Oliver was walking around the counter, snatching up his hooded jacket. “Why don't you call it in early tonight,” Oliver said, probably trying to sound generous. “I'm not expecting much trouble.” Pulling on his jacket and quiver and grabbing his bow, he started up the metal stairs to where his Ducati was parked, ready to embark on another night of terrorising dirty one-percenters.

Felicity closed her eyes briefly. Frack. She couldn’t let Oliver go out there, not when she knew that the archer was fully capable and fully willing to shoot anybody who didn’t do as he said so full of arrows they looked like porcupines. Ken Williams had a kid! She couldn’t let Oliver go out there and kill the guy, orphaning a ten year old. Glancing once at Diggle and interally beating herself over, she used a computer override to lock the access door.

A faint clicking sound occurred as the door deadlocked itself and, halfway up the stairs, Oliver froze. The blonde kicked herself, biting her lip. Of course Oliver would notice, he had freaky werewolf superhearing. Oliver paused, narrowing his eyes and marched to the top of the stairs. He entered the code and tugged at the door twice and finally seemed to realise that he wouldn’t be going anywhere.

A deep growl burst from his throat as he thudded back down the staircase, snapping, “Felicity! Did you just - “

Felicity winced. “ - Computer override your lock?” She swivelled around on the chair and shrank backwards under the Alpha’s gaze, admitting quietly, “Maybe a little.”

She was relieved to see that Oliver was more confused than angry. “Felicity, what are you doing?”

Felicity wheeled backwards slightly so her personal space bubble was once again intact and began, nervous and trying to sound a little insistant. “I pulled up some information on Mr. Williams.” She waved her hand towards the screen, leaning forwards. “Did you know he's a widowed father of a 10-year-old boy?”

Just the fact that Oliver shot her a look that said ‘And-why-should-I-care?’ and sent Diggle a glance over her shoulder that screamed ‘Can-you-believe-this-girl?”, made Felicity even more sure that she had done the right thing of stopping Oliver from straight out going after Ken Williams.

Felicity took a deep breath and said, in a serious and firm voice, lifting her chin, “I told you. I'm only in this to help Walter.” Then she lowered her voice and hissed, “Not to be an accessory to orphaning little kids.”

Oliver still didn’t seem to get it. “There’s nothing to be worried about, I do this all the time. I'm just giving him a warning,” he informed her dismissively.

Felicity felt like standing up and smashing Oliver’s head against the wall to get it into his thick head. “And if he doesn’t listen to that warning, you’ll shoot him full of arrows, leaving his ten year old kid motherless and fatherless.” She shot the wolf another begging look, gripping his sleeve when he made a noise and angled himself towards the exit. “Oliver, please, you know what it’s like to lose a parent. This kid has already lost one, do you really want to be the guy that causes him to lose the other?”

Oliver’s eyes slammed shut and Felicity muttered a quiet swear word under her breath towards herself. She had been desperate, desperate enough to bring up Oliver’s past, and there was an unspoken agreement between them all that they wouldn’t bring up Robert Queen or Lian Yu without good reason. Felicity had just torn that to shreds in an attempt to try and reach any humanity that the archer had left in him.

“What are you trying to say, Felicity?” Oliver finally asked, his blue eyes locking on hers. “I can’t get a sense of what you’re - your chemo-signals are all mixed up. I get that you care about Williams’ son, and I agree with you that we shouldn’t be accessories to orphaning innocent children. But that’s not all, is it?” His voice was lethally quiet now as he questioned, “What do you want from me?”

This was her one chance. She had to at least try and convince him. “Has it ever occurred to you that you could do some real good in the city?” Felicity pleaded. “Beyond just recovering people's stock portfolios and their saving accounts?” She imagined a Starling City where their resident werewolf bow-weilding vigilante saved civilian lives by stopping criminals, taking down drug-dealers, leading the police to hidden hacker rings and breaking up human trafficking rings. She knew in her heart that Oliver could be so much more than just a weapon pointed at names on a list. She knew that Oliver could, if he tried, be a real hero.

The wolf gazed at her. Then, he slowly leant forwards, so his mouth brushed her ear. Felicity inhaled sharply and held completely still. Maybe the wolf was scenting her chemo-signals or something, maybe he was searching for the best place to bite her so she would bleed to death. Okay, she didn’t believe the last one. She knew that Oliver would never do anything to hurt her. She had noticed before that the wolf had some kind of fondness of her.

But then, there was another faint beep and Oliver growled, “You're not the only one who knows how to reboot my system.” He straightened again, looking triumphant and smug.

Felicity’s heart sank. She really thought that she could find a way to get through to the wolf. Obviously, Oliver was too tied up in dealing with the people on that stupid list to even consider making a difference in Starling City. “I made a mistake,” she said softly.

Oliver snorted, switching his bow between his hands. “Getting in my way? I don't disagree.”

Fury bubbled up inside of her and Felicity stood up suddenly, and since Oliver was slightly leaning over her, she pushed straight up into the wolf’s personal space, getting directly into his face as she responded angrily, “No. Signing on with you. Even provisionally.” She snatched up her bag and stormed away towards the stairs. “I thought the Alpha was supposed to protect their territory, protect the pack and deal with the threats intruders posed. All you’re doing is fighting off your own rivals. Good luck in your mission to save the city, good luck in setting up a better computer system and good luck in managing your future werewolf-vigilante exploits without tech support.” And then, just because she was feeling particularly spiteful, she threw over her shoulder, “I’ll find Walter myself.”

Continuing to take deep breaths as she marched out of the Lair, then out of Verdant before clambering into her car, as soon as Felicity shut the door to her Mini Cooper, her hands slammed down onto the dashboard and let out a pent up cry of frustration. She had just blown her chance to find Walter. Oliver and Diggle had way more resources for her, and if she had stayed on the team, she would have been able to set up a Cobalt-encrypted network that would have been awesome.

Felicity drove to Big Belly Burger and got a takeway before driving back to her apartment. She dressed into her pyjamas and ended up eating two pints of mint chip icecream after her burger and watched four episodes of Doctor Who, wallowing in her self-pity. Then, around half way through her fifth episode, she sat up straight and heaved a sigh. There was nothing else she could really do. She could try and run her own searches for Walter, and try to keep an eye on Oliver’s activities (she was pretty sure she could get into the Lair without him knowing so she could set up hidden cameras or something), but now she had basically just quit the team.

With faint amusement, Felicity wondered how long it would take for Oliver and Diggle to visit her and make her promise not to reveal anything about their vigilantism and the whole werewolf thing. That would be a fun conversation. She set herself a bet that they would come by her office tomorrow, and that if she won, she could treat herself to Chinese.

After a poor night’s sleep and missing breakfast, Felicity drove miserably to Queen Consolidated to begin another day’s work. Before going to her office, however, she had to visit the Media Correspondent about fitting a new external hard-drive. That took around an hour, and cheered her up slightly, because she loved fiddling around with wires; she had designed the hard-drive herself and had it fabricated by QC production especially, and the Head of IT had been impressed, so Felicity predicted herself getting a bonus by the end of the month.

As she approached her office, she barked out a short laugh as she realised who was already in her office. She shoved past Diggle and strode straight past Oliver without a second glance.

“I had a bet going with myself on how quickly you two would visit. Tell me not to reveal your secret.” She smiled coldly. “Looks like I won. Yay for me. I get Chinese tonight.”

Oliver steeled himself and said, in a much softer voice than he usually would, fiddling with his hands as he stood awkwardly in front of her desk as the blonde settled into her chair. “Actually, Felicity, I was hoping that I could get you to change your mind.”

“Oh, good,” Felicity replied sharply. “I thought you’d come to ask for your limitless credit card back.”

“Felicity…” He sighed. “Please, just let me talk without interrupting with some sarcastic comment? I know you’re pretty good at those.”

Felicity shot him an incredulous look. Was Oliver seriously going to apologise? His much more approachable bodyguard was probably forcing him to speak with her. The blonde cast a quick glance over at Diggle, but the man was gazing at Oliver’s back. Huh. Diggle looked surprised, mostly stunned. Did that mean that Oliver was here by his own accord?

“I’m sorry,” the wolf said gently, lowering his eyes. “I was worked up on adrenalin last night, and... I didn't exactly put my best foot forward. Sometimes my wolf instincts take over a little and I can seem a little -”

“Unstable? Distracted? Uptight? Wanting to go shoot bad guys so full of arrows they look like porcupines?” Felicity suggested, keeping her tone carefully flat.

“...Yeah. I was hoping you'd give me the opportunity to show you the better, calmer, more human side of me... now?” He sounded hesitant, and not very confident, and Felicity reckoned that was why the wolf was looking so like a fish out of water. As a badass vigilante, Felicity didn’t suppose Oliver had experienced not being confident very often.

That didn’t, however, excuse him from his plan about threatening that guy with the kid. “How about you start with Ken Williams?” Felicity typed on her keyboard, keeping her eyes fixed on her screen as she straightened her glasses. “Did he also get to enjoy your wolfy adrenalin last night?”

Oliver shook his head. “No, he returned the money that he stole just in time to put his son to bed.” Felicity stopped typing and looked up at him. Oliver gave her a small awkward smile. “Like I said, Felicity, just a warning. I don’t hurt people unless they force me to. And I never wolf out on any of my targets without good reason.”

Felicity’s live news feed announced a new story and, turning her interest to that, Felicity turned the volume up to listen. Detective McKenna Hall was being interviewed by the press, being questioned on a thief. “At this time, we'd like to remind the public that we are coordinating our efforts with Interpol as the Dodger operates primarily in Europe, and they have advised us to warn the public that he is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous.”

Diggle spoke for the first time since entering, informing them both as she strode forwards, “You know, I heard about this guy. They call him the Dodger because he avoids getting his hands dirty.” Smirking since he now had both Felicity and Oliver’s full attention, he continued. “He uses hostages to do his stealing for him.”

Oliver looked intrigued. Having seen and heard of a lot of weird stuff, the fact that this sort of thing was new to him must have surprised him. “How?”

Diggle motioned to his throat. “Puts a bomb collar around their necks.” He grimaced. “Last year, a guy in Madrid didn't steal what the Dodger told him to, and it took his head off.” He swallowed. “Literally.”

“Wow, that’s great,” Felicity said sarcastically. “And now the psycho's in Starling City?” She shook her head, turning back to her screen and muttering mockingly, “It's too bad his name's not in your notebook.”

“You know, not all the people that I target are on the list.”

Felicity slowly looked up at Oliver. He was watching her intently, probably trying to get a hint of her chemo-signals to figure out how she was feeling and what she was thinking. At that moment, she was wondering what the hell Oliver meant by his last comment. She cocked her head and nodded for him to continue.

“Every once in a while, I make an exception,” Oliver told her hurriedly. He motioned towards the screen where the news report was still playing, muted. “A hostage-taking jewel thief, for example.” Then he asked, very hopefully, “How about you help us take him down?”

Silence fell like a thick blanket over the three of them. Felicity looked between both Oliver and Diggle, keeping her face blank. Checking the time, Felicity said, “Okay, well, it’s nearly my lunch break, so treat me and we’ll work up a plan, how’s that sound?”

“Great.” Oliver flashed her a wide grin. “Car’s outside. How’s Big Belly Burger sound?”

Felicity clapped her hands together happily, saving her programs. “Well you, mister, certainly know a way into an IT nerd’s heart.” She immediately blushed. “I - I didn’t mean -”

“Relax, Felicity,” Oliver smiled. “Grab your stuff, I’ll contact HR and ask them to give you the rest of the day off.”

Felicity gaped. “W-what? No, Oliver, you don’t have to -”

“If we’re going to be planning to take down this Dodger, you’re going to need to spend all your attention on working tech support for us,” Oliver said firmly. “I’ll tell them you’re doing a personal favor for me. Which you actually are, so that’s not a problem.” He shot a look at Digg. “I’ll be waiting in the car.”

Felicity watched with raised eyebrows as the wolf made a hasty exit. Shrugging, she shut down all her remaining programs and logged off, pulling on her coat and grabbing her tablet and bag. Diggle waited quietly for her to close up and escorted her through the building.

“So I’m curious,” Felicity started, when they stepped into an empty elevator and began heading down to the ground floor, where the car was parked out front. “Did you tell him to apologise, or was that all his idea?”

“All his idea,” Diggle replied. “Believe me, I was surprised as you were.”

“He doesn’t apologise very often, does he?” Felicity snorted.

“Guess he doesn’t have to. It’s not like he’s going to say he’s sorry to the guys he fires arrows into, and he’s a billionaire.” Diggle cast her a look that she couldn’t read. “You change him, Felicity. He acts like a totally different man when he’s around you. He’s a lot less on edge, have you noticed?”

Felicity tilted her head in acceptance. “I have noticed that. Don’t expect me to know why though. As soon as I saw him I knew that Oliver was a mystery and knowing he’s a werewolf doesn’t put me any closer to solving him.” She winced. “That came out wrong.”

“I’ve been working with him since practically the beginning,” Diggle told her as the elevator doors opened and they strode out into the lobby side by side. “And he’s still just as strange and mysterious.”

Oliver was waiting for them, leaning on the car, and he opened the back door for Felicity as the pair walked up to him. It was a sleek black Mercedes and was probably one of the most inconspicious cars the Queens owned, which was probably why Oliver preferred to be driven around in it. They remained in a comfortable, companionable silence during the drive, Felicity mainly gazing around the car in awe, mostly fan-girling about the crazy amount of footspace she had. She could tell that Oliver was watching her the whole journey, but she never met his eyes in fear of embarrassing herself further than she already had.

Felicity immediately broke out into a grin as the three of them approached Big Belly Burger on foot, having ditching the car in a car park half a block away. Oliver, ever the gentlemen, opened the door for them and they quickly grabbed a booth, aware that the burger joint was slowly filling up because it was nearing the lunch hour. They were served quickly; Oliver ordered a coffee and curly fries, while Digg just opted for a coffee. Felicity, seeing as she hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning, decided to just come out as the food-lover she was and ordered an Big Belly Buster burger, a side of curly fries and a large vanilla milkshake. Neither Oliver nor Diggle made comments on the food, even when Felicity raised her eyebrows, daring them to.

As Felicity ate, she contented herself to watch the wolf. Oliver was constantly looking around searchingly, most probably for threats, appearing alert and on guard like he always seemed to be. That must have been because of what had happened during his five years stranded on an island, Felicity reckoned. No way did she believe that Oliver was alone. 

When the archer had first returned, being transferred from a Hong Kong hospital to Starling General, he had insisted that he had been alone. However, when the doctors and nurses had examined him physically, they had found evidence of torture. They wrote it down in a report that Oliver claimed that he was alone because he had been threatened, or tortured into silence by whoever else had been on Lian Yu. One really incompetent doctor had even suggested that all the injuries had been self-inflicted.

But no. Felicity knew in her heart that whatever experiences Oliver had been through, he had come out damaged and maybe traumatised. When Felicity had first met Oliver, she had researched PTSD. Oliver showed all of the signs. He had obvious hyper-vigilance, and Felicity had read that some PTSD victims joined fight clubs or got into a lot of scraps because fighting was the only way they could cope with their pent-up emotions; Oliver had a massive tick next to that one. He practically beat up guys every night.

Oliver finished his curly fries around the same time that Felicity finished her own food. The nice waitress whom Diggle seemed to know came up to grab their rubbish and Felicity ordered another vanilla shake. Oliver, being Oliver, brought their small talk around to vigilante business, just as Felicity expected he eventually would.

“So to catch this guy, we need to either figure out where he is, or where he's going to be.”

Felicity quirked an eyebrow, glancing between Oliver, who was opposite her and Digg, who was next to her. “Is this really how you guys figure out how to get your target?” She waved a hand to indicate the burger joint. “Over burgers and shakes?”

The waitress quickly came up to them with Felicity’s vanilla shake, handing it over and looking flustered. “Sorry it took me so long,” she apologised. She glanced over her shoulder. “I'm waiting on a bunch of particularly rowdy customers.”

There was a bunch of teens throwing fries at each other on a table by the window. Oliver sat back, hands on his lap; the wolf had probably noticed the loud bunch of kids a while ago, considering the superhearing. Diggle turned around to catch a glimpse of the kids and he frowned.

He turned back to the waitress. “You need me to handle that?” he asked completely seriously, confirming the question in Felicity’s mind that they knew each other.

The waitress grinned. “I appreciate it, but,” she winked, “I'm a pro by now.”

Digg smiled. “I'll be here if you need me.”

Grinning widely, the waitress moved away to serve some new customers. Felicity noticed how Diggle’s eyes remained on her for a few seconds, before breaking away to settle back on Oliver across the table.

Felicity swirled her straw in her shake, raising her eyebrows as he tried to question casually, “Girlfriend?”

Diggle turned to her, blinking. “No, it's my sister in law.” He paused. “Hmm… Sort of.”

When Felicity tilted her head, silently asking for an explanation, Oliver pitched in, his eyes still wandering around the floor space. “Carly was married to Digg's brother.” He tapped his fingers against the counter top as he added quietly, in a lower voice. “And he passed away.”

Felicity nodded sympathetically before leaning forwards with a cheeky grin. Time to see if she could keep that promise to herself about making Oliver smile more. “Hmm,” she said approvingly. Then, in a flippant tone, “Well, looks like she's hot for you.”

Diggle kind of choked on his coffee. “Ah.” Chuckling and grinning, he said, “Can we get back to crime fighting, please?”

Oliver exchanged a look with Felicity, who waggled her eyebrows and tilted her head towards Diggle, egging Oliver on to taunt the man. “Actually, Digg,” Oliver interrupted, taking a gulp of his own coffee. “I was thinking, you probably should ask her out.”

Diggle looked unimpressed. “Really?”

“Mm-hmm.” Oliver hummed around his coffee, shooting a quick wink Felicity’s way, and the blonde was delighted at the slight smile that appeared on the wolf’s face as he took joy in teasing his partner.

Diggle settled his arms on the table and countered, ““I'll do that just five minutes after you ask out McKenna.”

Oliver stiffened slightly, but Felicity couldn’t let this go. She caught up quickly, straightening and saying in a delighted voice, “Ooh, the detective on the Dodger case.” She beamed at Oliver. “You have a thing for her?”

The wolf was frozen, and looked like he was about to protect, but then Diggle cut in with a loud, “Yes.”

Glaring between them both, Felicity nudged Diggle subtly in the side, trying to pass on how overjoyed she was at the way this conversation was going. Digg looked just the same, staring directly into Oliver’s eyes. They stared off for the moment, Oliver’s Alpha instinct telling him not to back down.

After a brief awkward silence, Oliver broke it. “I don't see you asking Carly out,” he said defensively.

Diggle raised his eyebrows at the challenge. He drummed his fingers on the countertop for a moment, before curling his lip and rising to go after the waitress. Felicity gave a little fist punch of the air before pushing her glasses up her nose. She was about to begin teasing Oliver about McKenna again, but the wolf sensed it and changed the subject swiftly.

“Felicity, this guy, he's targeting a very specific type of jewel.” He shook his head thoughtfully. “We figure out why, and that'll give us the how to catch him.”

Turning her head away from where she had been watching Diggle approach Carly, Felicity leant back and cupped her hands in front of her. “I have an idea.” Oliver bowed his head and waved his hand, telling her to go ahead. “Your crush object with a badge said they were working with Interpol?”

Oliver didn’t even blanch or blink at the ‘crush object’ thing. “Yeah.”

Felicity shuffled in her seat, waving her hands about wildly. “Why don't I work up some tech? You distract her with a little flirty flirt,” Oliver did look a little astonished at that, fueling her onwards, “And you can slip said tech onto her phone. It'll turn into a micro transmitter, and boom,” she slammed her hands down on the table smugly, smiling. “We'll learn everything she knows.”

Oliver was frowning thoughfully. “Hmm. It's not how I typically get my information.”

“How do you typically do it?” Felicity instantly reconsidered; considering what Oliver did to people who didn’t listen to his warnings, she didn’t want to know how he got information out of people not willing to talk.”

“I find the person,” Oliver began casually. “And then I put the fear of God into them until they talk.” Seeing Felicity’s horrified look at that, he added swiftly, “But we can try your way.”

“Yes, we can try my way,” she hissed. Her eyes were as round as plates as she leant in closer and whispered, “You seriously torture people if they don’t let up information?”

Oliver shook his head. “No, putting the fear of God into them by threatening them with arrows usually makes them talk. It normally doesn’t get to the torture part.”

“Oh, of course, normally,” Felicity repeated sarcastically.

Diggle returned and slid back into the booth next to Felicity. “Done,” he announced triumphantly. “Carly and I are going on a date tonight.” He shot Oliver a look. “So you gonna be a man and ask McKenna out?”

“Yeah,” Oliver responded. “I’ll ask her out, while also bugging her so we can get all the information we need about the Dodger case. It’s a win-win situation.”

Diggle stared at him for a moment. “Man, you can’t do one thing normal, can you?”

“Nope.” Oliver finished off his coffee. “We should head back to the Foundry.” He turned to Felicity. “How long will it take for you to make the device? The micro transmitter thing you mentioned.”

“I already have,” Felicity confessed sheepishly, turning slightly pink. “I get bored in the evenings sometimes when I can’t be bothered to nap or marathon TV series or films, so I end up generally messing around with any spare tech I can sneak out from the IT department. It’s not stealing,” she hurried to add. “They don’t want it in the first place, and it would end up in the trash, so I save it and recycle it.” She spread her hands. “In this case, I was bored and decided to help out the team by getting ahead of making some bugging equipment.”

“You made bugging equipment… because you were bored?” Oliver repeated, somewhat unbelievingly. “What did you make?”

Felicity glanced down at her hands, blushing. “Some satellite trackers, a few data recovery USB sticks, GSM listening bugs, micro transmitters… a lot of other stuff too. I made three encrypted ghost smart phones as well, one for each of us.” She pretended not to see the stunned and amazed gazes of Oliver and Diggle. “It’s all in my apartment so I have to bring it down to the Lair, but I kinda have to be discreet because if the police stop and search me and find any of it, they’ll confiscate it and put me under observation for cyber terrorism.” She glanced around. “We should get the check. Now feels like the time we should get the check and leave.”

Oliver let out a faint chuckle. “Okay. I’ll cover the check. Digg, can you please take Felicity to her apartment to pick up her equipment and then the Foundry? I’ll meet you both there.”

Diggle had already risen, yanking on his black trench coat and waiting for Felicity to follow him. But the blonde looked between them both, wide eyed and pointed at Oliver.

“How will you get to the club? I mean, you haven’t got a car.”

Oliver smiled. “Felicity.”

“Hmm?” She raised an eyebrow.

He shook his head. “I don’t need a car.”

She spluttered. “You mean you’re going to run all the way to Verdant?”

Oliver shrugged. “I’m a wolf. A distance that far is hardly anything. Besides, I could use the exercise.” He rolled his shoulders backwards. “Did you know my mother banned me from going running in the mansion grounds? She and Thea completely freaked out after I went running early one morning and they didn’t know where I was.”

“Well, in your mom and sister’s defense, you were stranded on a desert island for five years. It’s only right that they’re extra protective of you now,” Felicity said wisely. She threw her hands in the air. “Okay! You run to the club. We’ll meet you there.”

Oliver flashed her a brief smile. Felicity reached over to grab her coat and bag, allowing her hand to brush up against Oliver’s; Diggle clapped his hand on Oliver’s shoulder and the two of them exchanged glances, Oliver’s slightly more forceful as he ordered silently for his Beta to protect and look after the blonde. When his bodyguard gave a small nod, Oliver was able to relax slightly.

Watching Felicity walk out of Big Belly Burger beside Diggle caused butterflies to erupt in Oliver’s stomach. As soon as the door closed behind them, Oliver was finally able to take the largest and deepest breath he could take since that morning. Felicity’s scent was almost addictive - he had only spent half the day with her, and his wolf instincts were already on the fritz. He found when scenting the air for blood or gun oil that his nose always focused on Felicity’s vanilla, honey and lavender scent or the IT girls’ intriging chemo-signals. They changed so fast, lightning quick, that it was fascinating to pay attention to them; Felicity’s thought tracks changed and developed so fast that her emotions followed - her emotional state must have changed over a hundred times since they had entered the burger joint.

When Oliver looked around searchingly for danger, his sharp sense of eyesight easily picking out weapons and threats, they always somehow ended up back on Felicity. Her hair, her face, her posture. Instead of noticing potential weapons or vantage points in a room, he was instead picking out little things about the blonde; the way her pony-tail swept over her shoulders when she turned the head, the small movements of her hands, or the quirk of her lips in a smile whenever he spoke.

As he laid out cash on the table to pay for the food and drinks, Oliver found himself remembering the conversation he had had with Diggle, Felicity’s first night in the Lair when his mother had shot him with a silver bullet.

_She’s going to put you in danger._

_You lose your focus when she’s around._

_She’s gonna get you killed._

The most terrifying thing was that after simply only spending a few hours with her since she had signed on to help the team, Oliver knew that Diggle had been right. Last night, when Felicity had stormed out of the Foundry, Oliver had been forced to fight himself from going after her. And when she had yelled at him, when she had pressed up against him to force him to step backwards, he found himself submitting.

He was an Alpha with the strength to snap somebody’s neck with one hand that couldn’t stand up to a babbling blonde IT nerd a head shorter than him. If he couldn’t find a way to control his instincts around Felicity then his crusade to save the city was going to be screwed.


	3. Dodger (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity didn't plan the Dodger case going so spectacularly wrong.
> 
> Getting a bomb collar strapped to her neck was a little more than disconcerting, especially with how Oliver reacted to the entire situation.
> 
> And she certainly didn't plan to end up staying at the Queen mansion for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya'll asked for more
> 
> ya'll are receiving
> 
> jesus christ i need to get my life together...

Diggle drove fast, and knew all the best routes around Starling, so they got to Felicity’s apartment in record time to pick up her hand-made tech. It was a fact that annoyed her, because whenever she tried to drive home after work, she always got caught up in traffic and the journey that should take fifteen minutes ended up taking an hour. But the good thing about Dig’s awesome knowledge of avoiding the busy streets was that they arrived back at the Foundry before Oliver, so Felicity was able to put the finishing touches on the bugging device they were planning to plant on McKenna’s phone.

When Oliver walked in, ten minutes after Felicity and Diggle arrived, Felicity’s first thought was, _Oh holy god, I thought it was physically impossible for a man to look that good while sweating that much._

She was slightly disappointed that the vigilante hadn’t arrived as a wolf, giving her the opportunity to see him in his canine form, but otherwise, she was impressed. The wolf had obviously run all the way to the Foundry, just like he claimed he would do; his hair was tousled and wind-blown and Felicity internally commented that it looked like somebody had run their hands through it over and over again before she cringed at her head for being so terribly inappropriate. Sweat glistened on his neck and his forehead and he wiped it away with a towel, taking a long drink from a bottle of water. Felicity squeaked, eyes wide when a bead of water escaped the bottle and trailed down his throat, over his Adam's apple.

_He’s so attractive._

Oliver’s eyes snapped upwards and he grinned at her wolfishly. Felicity blinked and then closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands when she realised that her thoughts must have slipped past her lips, so she said them aloud. Diggle didn’t appear to have noticed though, so she must have whispered those words; Felicity cursed Oliver’s wolf-enhanced hearing.

“Do you have the bug?” Oliver piped up, obviously taking pity on her as the smile slipped off his face and he grabbed a new t-shirt, beginning to change into fresh clothes. “I’ll head on over to the precinct now.”

“Yep! Here you go! No - don’t -” She yanked her hand away from him when he reached out to grab it carelessly, slapping his hand away with wide eyes. “This took me three hours to make, mister, you can at least treat it with some respect! Tech is fragile, Oliver!”

He appeared amused, pulling his hand back and turning it over to offer his palm to her instead. “I’m not going to break it, Felicity.”

“You will if you handle it like you tried to before,” she muttered, finally placing the small bug into his hand with immense care. “Try and keep your paws from crushing it, please.”

“You’re going to continue with the dog puns, aren’t you?” Oliver said, sounding exasperated.

“Do they bother you?” Felicity questioned, glancing up at him in concern as she slipped back into her chair, wheeling back in front of the monitor set-up.

“I wouldn’t say they bother me,” the wolf responded. “They’re just annoying.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to step on your tail.”

Oliver rolled his eyes and just left, ascending the staircase and exiting the Foundry, obviously off to the precinct. Felicity couldn’t help but grin when she turned to Diggle. The bodyguard looked mildly entertained by watching their interaction, leaning back on the weapons counter with his arms crossed. Teasing the wolf was certainly going to be one of her favourite activities over the next few months; now she knew that the jokes didn’t really anger the vigilante, just being slightly irritating for him, she was going to continue making dog and wolf puns for as long as she possibly could.

“You’re treading in dangerous waters,” Diggle said, although he still sounded amused, “Riling up a werewolf.”

“Lycanthrope,” Felicity corrected absentmindedly, kicking her legs back and forth as she leant back in her chair, adding, “And since he’s got that brooding, mysterious supernatural creature gig going for him, I think I should make it my duty to occasionally lighten the mood with my incredible, legendary dog puns.”

Diggle smirked, chuckling. “I’m not complaining. I think I actually saw him crack a smile at the paws one.”

“Oliver? Crack a smile?” she repeated, lacing her voice with fake disbelief and shock. “Now you’re the one kidding me!” She rested her head on her hand, leaning onto her chair’s armrest. She watched their partner start ordering their mess of a medical counter. “Hey, Dig, can I ask you a question?”

Discharging magazines from multiple handguns, he answered with a clipped, “Yep,” although he flashed a quick smile to let Felicity know that she wasn’t getting on his nerves, rather he was focusing on cleaning the firearms.

“When did you find out that Oliver’s a werewolf?”

Slowly, Diggle placed his Glock back down onto the metal counter. “That’s a long story.”

“Well, we have until Oliver successfully places the bug and gets back,” Felicity reminded him, perking up in curiosity. “C’mon. If it’s a long story, it’s got to be an interesting one.”

“Okay, it’s not _long_ as such, it’s just… difficult to explain.”

“I graduated with a Masters degree from MIT at nineteen. Shoot.”

Eventually, Diggle nodded, deciding to obviously humour her. “Shortened version. Unidac Auction. Deadshot was there. He tried to kill Walter, and Oliver went after him as the vigilante, cornered him and started fighting him. I followed him not realising what was going on and ended up getting shot. Deadshot laced his bullets with curare, which is a powerful poison, so I collapsed. Almost went into cardiac arrest. Oliver shifted into wolf form so he could carry me back here and administer a cure as quickly as possible. When I regained consciousness next morning, there was a giant wolf sitting in front of me.”

“That must have been one hell of a wake-up call,” Felicity exhaled. She tried to imagine how she would have reacted if she were in Diggle’s shoes, waking up after being shot and poisoned to find a huge, deadly beast standing over her. She would have freaked out and screamed for certain.

“I tried to shoot him,” Diggle admitted, glancing down at the ground sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I think Oliver was more scared than I was. He hid under one of the tables and didn’t shift back until I put my gun down, and then refused to let me within ten feet of him for a few days after that.”

Judging by the wolf’s extensively scarred torso and haunted attitude, Felicity reckoned that Oliver had pretty good reasons to be terrified of a human being pointing a gun at him. “And now you’re on his team,” she grinned.

“Took a couple of days to decide to sign on,” Diggle said. “Forewarning for you - Oliver is very intimidating as a wolf. I almost crapped my pants, for sure. He’s massive, and _strong_. I’m pretty sure he could crush my skull without properly lifting a paw.”

“He has to be strong, though,” the blonde shrugged. “I suppose it would be dangerous for him to go up against hardcore street criminals if we weren't.” As she was speaking, Felicity began to frown. What Oliver was doing was really dangerous. He was putting himself in jeopardy every night. Even as a wolf, with his enhanced instincts and senses, he was still in danger of being hurt - the night where she’d discovered his lycanthropy and his night job was proof of that. That meant that by joining his crusade, she was going to be in peril right alongside him.

The bodyguard was staring at her with a knowing, yet sympathetic expression. “We’re going to keep you as safe as possible, Felicity.”

She glanced down at her hands, biting her lip. “Okay, but -”

“Felicity,” he cut her off. Swallowing, she raised her eyes to gaze at him. Relaxing as she saw his reassurance expression, her mouth ticked up into a small smile. “I promise you, you are not going to get hurt. You’re going to stay in here in front of the computers, where you work best.”

“I wouldn’t mind going out into the field with you -”

“Don’t let Oliver hear you say that,” Diggle shook his head, quickly turning around to check the staircase and security door. It was if he was worried that the wolf would walk in and overhear their conversation at any moment. “His wolf instincts make him fiercely overprotective over pack. He’s not going to let you do any fieldwork whatsoever.”

Felicity blinked at him. “Pack?” she repeated incredulously.

A faint smirk on his face, Diggle just said shortly, “You’ll realise what I mean soon.” When she tilted her head sideways at him curiously, the bodyguard laughed. “Don’t worry. And don’t worry about getting hurt. Oliver and I are going to make sure you’re completely safe while working with us. No dangerous situations for you, Miss Smoak.”

“Promise?” she grinned.

“Promise.”

The bugging of McKenna’s phone allowed them to discover that the Dodger used fences to sell the goods that he forced people to steal for him. Finding the next fence the Dodger was selling the Sherwood Ruby onto turned out to be a dead end, after Oliver and the police busted the deal before the Dodger was caught. Oliver had briefly encountered the bomber, however. He was extremely antsy after that, pacing and growling and desperate to find him. Diggle suspected that was due to the Dodger being a lycanthrope, and told Felicity so. She was confused why the wolf wasn’t informing them of that though. They decided not to confront Oliver about it, since he seemed to be so on edge. Felicity was slightly concerned that the archer might snap and bite her arm off in wolf form if she pressured him too much.

(Both Oliver and Diggle’s dates went _awfully_. They wouldn’t even talk about them. Oliver bared his canines and flashed amber wolf eyes at her when she probed. They were no fun.)

The only good thing about this entire situation was that they finally had a proper lead. The Dodger seemed to have a taste for a very specific type of antiquity: jewels from the Ominous decade, during the last ten years of King Ferdinand's reign. Oliver’s extremely rich family apparently had one of the rare, Spanish broaches, so they concocted a plan to lure the Dodger in by auctioning the antiquity off at the Starling City Cancer Society fundraising auction the next night.

It meant that Felicity was going to be out in the field with Oliver and Diggle. Although, it wasn’t precisely ‘out in the field’. A very fancy charity auction wasn’t exactly a dark, damp alleyway in the Glades, which was often the type of location the vigilante frequented during his patrols. Felicity was absolutely delighted when she arrived home from work early that evening to prepare for the event to find a beautiful, bodycon-style gold sequin dress waiting for her.

The dress still had the label on it, but since there was no price, Felicity guessed that it must have been horrifically expensive. There was a warm feeling blossoming in her chest, however, as she held it up against herself in the mirror. Oliver bought this dress for her. He claimed in an explanatory text that it was something Thea had in her wardrobe and she was just ‘borrowing’ it, so she didn’t need to pay him back or anything, she could keep it - but it obviously wasn’t his little sister’s. Unless she and Thea had the exact same body sizes. It was kind of alarming at first to think about how Oliver knew her measurements, but then Felicity put the dress on and all of those thoughts evaporated from her head.

_Damn, I look great._

She was going to make heads turn at the gala. And that felt _amazing._

And then, she didn’t.

Because not two hours later after those incredible feelings wearing that dress (that caused Oliver to stare at her, Adam's apple bobbing in his throat as he approached her with a rather strange glint in his eyes), Felicity was pinned to the wall by the Dodger, threatened to keep her mouth shut, and a bomb collar was strapped around her neck.

(Yeah, it turned out that Felicity wasn’t as ‘completely safe’ as Diggle promised her she would be.)

Why, oh why, did she have to confront a psycho bomber when she saw that the broach’s tracker was moving? Why didn’t she just go straight to her vigilante partners for backup? Stupid, stupid Felicity.

Pale and terrified, she stumbled her way across the floor towards her partners, trembling hands clutching at the bomb collar. She caught Oliver’s sleeve and tugged at it, attracting his attention. “I think I have a problem,” she whispered shakily.

The wolf’s previously fake open and friendly expression vanished, morphing into one of intense concentration and terror within half a second. Quickly glancing around to check nobody else was paying attention them, Diggle ushered them out of the main ballroom and around several corners until they were alone. Felicity desperately held back her tears of fear.

Oliver pressed her up against the wall gently as the blonde backed away from them, scared that if the bomb did go off, they would get caught in the blast. Trying to shove them both away from her, she noticed the amber gleam in the wolf’s eyes as he sniffed at the device carefully, fingers brushing at her neck. His top lip was jutting out slightly, caused by his fangs extending. Oliver was very obviously fighting his instincts to shift, holding the wolf at bay.

“Get away from me!” she hissed sharply at them. “If this thing blows…”

There was a ferocious rumble in the wolf’s voice as he replied shortly, “Not going to happen.”

“The Dodger said if I called the police, he'd - I'm going to get decapitated, aren't I?”

Diggle had her cell phone in his hand, examining the screen as Oliver cautiously prodded at the bomb. She would feel flustered at the close contact between them, as the archer’s nose was practically brushing her cheek as he examined the collar, but she was too terrified.

“The tracker's on the move,” the bodyguard reported. “Oliver, if you find him, you might be able to get him to disarm it. Felicity, you’re going to need to talk him in. Stay calm.”

“Too late,” she whispered, tears welling.

A deep, resounding whine escaped Oliver’s throat, shocking both her and Diggle. He was practically shaking himself, eyes more amber than blue at this point. Felicity was starkly reminded of Diggle’s comment about Oliver being fiercely protective over his pack members, and everything clicked into place.

“Oliver,” Diggle said, nudging him. When the wolf didn’t respond, shifting closer to Felicity anxiously as he whimpered again, the bodyguard stabbed his finger into his arm harshly, causing the archer to yelp and growl. “Oliver! Back up! Let me get a look at it, I was trained in bomb disposal in the special forces.”

Almost reluctantly, Oliver took a step away from her, but it didn’t escape Felicity that the wolf kept a point of contact between them, his hand maintaining a tight grip on her arm. He was bouncing on the heels of his feet now, fighting between staying and going after the Dodger. Felicity couldn’t see what Diggle was doing with a small screwdriver he withdrew magically from his pocket, but she was scared, trembling even more now. What if Diggle accidentally triggered the bomb? What if he made things worse?

“Oliver. Go. Just go,” Diggle commanded, glancing back at the agitated archer. “Go, go, go.”

The alpha in the wolf caused him to bare his canines in a fierce growl of defiance.

"Oliver," Felicity whispered. His amber eyes flashed towards her. "Go. Please," she ordered softly.

Huffing, Oliver nodded. To Felicity’s astonishment, he leaned forwards and swiftly pressed a kiss to her forehead before dashing off at an inhuman speed. She was left gaping, clutching at Diggle’s shoulders for balance while the bodyguard attempted to disarm the bomb collar around her neck.

Wow. Okay.

Oliver just kissed her on the forehead. That just happened.

She would probably be freaking out over that more if there wasn’t an imminent threat of being exploded by an explosive piece of ugly jewellery.

“Felicity. Put your comm unit in,” Diggle prompted her. “Get your tablet out. Oliver needs you to guide him. The Dodger will most likely have a getaway vehicle and Oliver can’t track him by scent if he’s not on foot.”

“Right,” she mumbled, fumbling with her clutch purse to fish out her tablet, beginning to log onto it.

Oliver’s voice immediately growled at her, “Talk to me, Felicity!” as she fitted the unit into her ear. "Where's the Dodger going?"

"Don't bark at me like that, mister!" she snapped, already stressed out enough without the wolf snarling at her.

"Sorry," Oliver responded, sounding chastised, before he repeated more softly, "Where's he heading?" 

Clearing her throat and forcing herself to focus, Felicity quickly linked her cell phone to her tablet so she could find the location of the tracker they’d put on the broach. “Heading towards Adams and O'Neil. At the speed he's going, he's got to be in a vehicle.”

“I'm mobile. Where is he?”

"What do you mean, you're mobile? Did you just steal somebody's car, Oliver?"

"Motorcycle, but that's not important," he dismissed quickly. "Where is he!?"

Swallowing, Felicity ran a shaky hand through her hair and began hacking into the SCPD’s extensive CCTV and traffic camera database.

“Talk to me, Felicity.” Oliver’s voice was still stiff and commanding, but there was a degree of encouragement to it this time, as if he was trying to comfort her a little. “Come on. You can do this.”

“First time anyone's ever been grateful for traffic cameras,” she murmured, before raising her voice to inform the wolf, “He's one block from your position. If you cut through Harris Plaza, you'll end up right behind him.”

A few minutes later, Oliver snarled, “Where is he now?”

"Give me three seconds."

"Felicity!"

"Stop shouting at me! I'm not going to hack any quicker if you're yelling at me like that."

Oliver didn't reply, but his silence sounded guilty.

She finally got a lock on the car that the Dodger was in, following him using the traffic cameras. “Got it. I got him, I got him. Gray sedan driving north. At the light ahead of you.”

"Got him!"

Felicity didn’t have to do much after that except give a couple of directions, thank god, because her nerves were fried and she was minutes away from breaking down into a sobbing mess. The chase ended when Oliver ran down the Dodger on the stolen motorcycle, forcing the man out of the sedan and into the empty, open street. Felicity felt helpless as she leant back against the wall, sweating profusely in her anxiety as Diggle fiddled with the bomb collar wires. She could only listen to the tense showdown that occurred over on Oliver’s end.

“Hey! Don't do anything stupid. I had the foresight to collar up a particularly inquisitive blonde. I assume she's a friend of yours. Touch one hair on my head and she loses hers.”

“You touched her,” Oliver growled, his voice low and lethally dangerous. “She’s _mine_. She is part of my pack and if you hurt her, I will _kill you_. Slowly.”

“Yes, I thought you might be a werewolf as well. Oh, I’m sorry - lycanthrope. Got to use the politically correct term these days. A wolf can always scent out a wolf, you know. You really should mark up that blonde of yours. It would be so easy for another wolf to just take her from you. Dressed up like that, she was practically begging to be claimed. Ah, ah, ah! Not one step closer! I can press this button before you grab me, you know. And then your pretty little blonde will be decapitated. You can either catch me - or lose her. You've got quite the choice to make, don't you?”

There was a moment of silence, in which Felicity held her breath, tears rolling down her face as she realised that _holy shit_ , her life was in Oliver’s hands and she was slightly petrified he might make a decision that would end with her doing a rather poor impression of Nearly Headless Nick.

“Not this time.” There was another beat, and then a cry of pain. “Your median nerve's been severed. You couldn't push that button if you tried.”

Seconds later, the collar beeped and the mechanism unlocked.

“Oh, thank God,” Felicity sobbed.

_Oliver, I will never doubt you ever again._

Diggle carefully lifted the bomb collar from her neck and placed it away from them on the floor before tugging her into a massive hug. It felt so comforting and secure and safe that Felicity just released all of her pent-up emotions and burst into tears. She’d never felt so scared in her entire life. Rubbing her back, Diggle tightened the embrace and shushed her gently, taking the comm unit and placing it into his own ear before he went back to hugging her.

After letting her snivel for a few minutes, the bodyguard fell back and offered the comm unit back to her, to her confusion. “Oliver wants to talk to you,” he said softly. Ah, right, the archer had probably been speaking to Diggle, relaying instructions about what their next moves were.

Slipping the small device back into her ear, Felicity asked quietly, “Oliver?”

“Hey,” came his instant reply, “Are you okay?”

He sounded so genuinely concerned for her that it caused her to choke up, tears falling once again to her frustration. “Not - not really.”

“You’re safe now,” Oliver offered her.

She released a sob.

“You’re safe, Felicity, I promise,” he said, continuing to soothe her. “I promise, nobody will _ever_ hurt you again.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“I’ve just told Dig what we’re going to do but I’m going to tell you too, okay?”

“Alright.”

“First, I need you to permanently scrub all the CCTV and traffic camera footage from tonight. Everywhere the Dodger went, and maybe delete traffic camera footage all the way along a path from where I am now to the city limits. Make it look as if it was the Dodger trying to make a clean getaway. I’m going to call in the location of where I've tied up the Dodger anonymously to the SCPD after I end this call.”

“Okay,” she agreed softly.

“After you finish that, you and Diggle are going to find the police officers at the gala and give them the bomb collar. Your cover story is that you were my date to the gala, but I had to leave to take an important call about the club. My bodyguard stayed in the room with you, at which point you saw the Dodger stealing the broach. When you tried to stop him, he put the bomb collar on you. He threatened you and told you not to tell the police so you and Diggle left the room and tried to call me, but I was on call so you couldn’t reach me. Ten minutes later, the bomb collar unlocked.”

She nodded along with the story, finishing with a strangled, “Yep, okay.”

“Let Diggle do most of the talking. I can tell you’re exhausted and going into shock, so please, don’t overexert yourself. After the police have finished taking your statement, Diggle is going to take you to my house, okay?”

Panic fleeting through her, Felicity tried to open her mouth to protest but was promptly cut off.

“Felicity, _please_. I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe and in my territory tonight, and you’ll undoubtedly feel better not sleeping in an apartment alone. Let Diggle do the talking at the house as well, if anybody in my family questions you.”

“Where are you going to be?” she mumbled.

“After I make the call to the police, I’ll head back to you. It might take a while though, because I’ll have to run back. You’ll probably leave before I arrive. I’ll most likely have to make a statement to the police as well. After that… I… I have to shift and go for a run, Felicity. I so badly wanted to tear the Dodger’s throat out for hurting you. I… I just need a little space. I’ll see you in the morning. Is there anything you need tonight?”

“An alcoholic drink?” she said dryly, attempting some humour, but it fell flat when her voice tremored.

“I don’t think alcohol will be good for you right now,” Oliver said gently, “Not when you’re in shock. Maybe we’ll go for margaritas and take a night off tomorrow, okay?”

“Hmm.”

“Alright. Hand me back to Diggle, please.”

Everything after that was pretty much a giant blur. She hazily remembered clinging to the bodyguard as a police detective asked her questions and a paramedic checked her over, but since she mostly let Diggle speak, she couldn’t recall anything she said in her statement. A strange, silver tin foil-like sheet was wrapped around her shoulders at one point. Felicity recognised it as a shock blanket. Was she in shock? All her thoughts were floaty and she felt detached from her physical body, as if she was falling through the air. She also felt incredibly cold. Her hands were shaking and her legs felt unsteady beneath her, while she struggled to stop herself from throwing up. From everything she’d read about people going into shock, she certainly had all the symptoms.

Finally, the police allowed them to leave. Felicity cringed and shrunk into Diggle’s side as the bodyguard led her out of the building; all of the charity auction guests were staring and whispering about her from where the police had gathered them in the lobby due to bomb disposal having to come and collect the bomb collar. It would have bothered the blonde more if she didn’t already feel so nauseous she was withering internally. The worst part of it was that her cover story was that she was Oliver’s date to the gala, but he was nowhere to be found. Did it really take that long for the wolf to retrace his journey on foot? He’d proved to them only yesterday that he was a very fast runner - especially when he shifted into wolf form. Felicity hated admitting it, but she found herself almost missing him. Oliver made her feel safe. And she desperately needed that kind of comfort.

Diggle wrapped her in his coat before helping her into the car’s passenger seat. She faintly recognised that it was a black town car that the bodyguard had driven her and Oliver here in. The blonde must have drifted off to sleep briefly, because when the car came to a standstill and Diggle opened the door for her, they were at the Queen mansion.

Oliver’s home was _huge_. Felicity felt insignificant and small just looking at the house, because it was like a _castle_. Squirming in her seat as she hesitated to get out of the car, the blonde only clambered out when Diggle softly called her name and reassured her that it was okay. He guided her up the porch steps slowly, pulling out his personal key and unlocking the doors, pushing them open before helping her inside. If Felicity’s jaw didn’t drop before, she was certainly gaping now. She had never seen such a classy, sophistic house. She knew the Queens were rich but wow, with a house like this… they really lived up to their surname. Gazing around the large entrance lobby and up the two grand staircases, she finally turned back to the bodyguard, her eyes wide.

“I feel like a peasant,” she said tiredly. “I don’t like feeling like a peasant. I’m a peasant that’s been invited by the prince to stay in his luscious castle even though I have absolutely no place here and it’s really uncomfortable.”

“You’re not a peasant, Felicity,” Diggle sighed.

“Really? Because this house is thirty times the size of my apartment.” She didn’t realise she was slumping, legs giving out beneath her due to her exhaustion until Diggle lunged to catch her under the arms. She whispered, “This is the worst night of my life. This is worse than that night I went to that party and ate that pot brownie by accident and went into anaphylactic shock and ended up in the hospital. I didn’t think anything could top nearly dying by hazelnut brownie laced with marijuana. Why does my life suck so much?”

“Well, that’s got to be the weirdest introduction to a person I’ve ever experienced.”

Felicity peered blearily around Diggle and groaned when she caught sight of Oliver’s little sister, Thea Queen. Her brunette hair fell in beautifully styles waves just past her shoulders, and she was wearing cashmere pyjamas that probably cost more than Felicity’s monthly salary.

“Hi, Mr Diggle,” Thea greeted the bodyguard.

“Hi, Thea,” Diggle replied, quickly glancing over at her before turning his attention back to Felicity, who was starting to fall over again. “Okay, Felicity, we need to sit you down before you pass out.”

“Felicity?” Thea repeated, a spark of recognition in her voice. “As in Felicity Smoak? Oliver’s girlfriend?”

“Nooooooo,” Felicity whined into Diggle’s shoulder. “She thinks I’m one of Oliver’s floozies.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Diggle reassured her quietly. “I think that by girlfriend she meant girl friend. A very definitive space between the two words.”

“Oh my god, Thea Queen knows who I am,” Felicity murmured.

The younger Queen sibling was sweeping her eyes up and down the blonde calculatingly, but after a moment, moved forwards to help support Felicity’s other side, so that she and Diggle could help her into the living room and onto one of the pristine couches. “Ollie’s talked about you before. He doesn’t often have female _friends_ if you know what I mean, so I was kinda curious when he said that there’s nothing going on between you, and that you just help him with technology stuff.”

The fact that the wolf had apparently been telling his family members about her was rather astounding, but Felicity only focused on the very last part of Thea’s sentence. “Your brother doesn’t even know how to log onto WiFi, but he has fantastic, amazing abs,” Felicity mumbled. “It’s as if he’s purposely trying to frustrate me and also flip me off by just existing.” Realising what she’d just said, she tipped her head onto the back of the couch with another exhausted groan. “Dig, just punch me in the face, put me out of my misery, _please_.”

“I don’t think Oliver would like that,” the bodyguard said apologetically.

“What happened?” Thea questioned her worriedly.

Felicity spaced out again just beginning to think about it, but vaguely heard Diggle quietly explaining things to Oliver’s little sister, with Thea making horrified and sympathetic sounds throughout the story. Thea squeezed onto the couch next to the blonde, slipping a hand onto Felicity’s arm as if to offer some support. It was nice. At least Thea didn’t think that she was one of the girls that her brother was sleeping with.

“Oh god, that’s so dreadful,” Thea commented, her voice caring and empathetic. “Come on, you must be exhausted. You can borrow some of my pyjamas for tonight, okay?”

“I don’t think I should stay here,” Felicity muttered, fiddling anxiously with her hands.

“Why not?”

“Because - your brother and I are just friends and I was really worried about you and your family thinking that we’re _more_ than friends but we didn’t _know_ each other, because we’re not like that at all, I haven’t slept with Oliver and we’re not having casual sex or relationship sex or any - any kind of sex, actually, and I hate the idea of somebody thinking that I’m one of Oliver’s one-night-stands because I care about him and I’d like to think he cares about me - but in a _friend_ way, not in a -”

Felicity froze in horror mid-sentence as Moira Queen appeared in the doorway, looking impeccable and regal as always, even in a silk dressing gown with fluffy slippers. It was the first time she was faced with actually talking to the Queen matriarch face to face, and it scared her to think that she was facing her while she was emotionally vulnerable and exhausted. Immediately, the blonde slid away from Thea on the couch a little, expecting some sort of hostility or suspicion about why she was in their house. She was a stranger to them, after all.

“Hi,” she squeaked lamely, swallowing as she blinked up at Oliver’s mother. Who really was very daunting. She was starting to think it wasn’t the wolf part of the archer that made him so intimidating, but rather it was behaviour learnt from his mother.

Moira, however, maintained a blank expression as she suggested, “Thea, sweetheart, maybe you should get Miss Smoak some chamomile tea, she seems awfully shaken up.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine,” Felicity rushed out. “Thank you very much, Mrs Queen, but I really don’t need - I should go, I should really go -”

“Oliver just called,” Moira interrupted her gracefully, striding across the room towards her. She moved with a lithe, effortless finesse that had Felicity averting her eyes away from her in awe. “He informed us of what occurred at the charity auction. Of course, you can stay the night here, Miss Smoak.” And then, to her shock, Moira took a seat on the other side of her, reaching out to squeeze her hand. Felicity had to pinch her thigh to make sure she hadn’t dropped into some sort of bizarre twilight zone. “You poor dear, it must have been terrifying.”

“It - it was,” Felicity agreed, starting to tear up again. She shuddered at memory flash of that sleazy man’s hands around her neck as he strapped the bomb collar on. Subconsciously, her trembling hand reached up to gently scratch at her throat, wincing as the skin throbbed slightly. She would undoubtedly have bruises tomorrow.

“At least the police have caught the Dodger now,” Thea offered. “It was on the news just before you arrived. The vigilante took him down, and SCPD has him in custody. He’s going to jail for life. He’s not going to hurt or threaten anybody ever again.”

“Yeah,” she bobbed her head in a nod. _But we didn’t catch him before he hurt and threatened me._

“It’s late,” Moira said. It triggered Felicity to quickly check her phone, and she reared her head back in surprise, because wow, it was already way past midnight. She hadn’t even noticed. “Thea, would you please -?”

Thea jumped to her feet before her mother even finished speaking, dragging Felicity up alongside her by grasping her arm. Once again, the blonde found herself being steered through unfamiliar territory, although this time by a member of Oliver’s family rather than his bodyguard. “I’ll show you to your room for the night. What kind of pyjamas do you prefer?”

“I - I’m not really fussed,” Felicity responded in a small voice.

“Oh, okay then.”

Before she was hauled up one of the grand staircases, Felicity gently pulled away from Thea to gravitate towards Diggle, throwing her arms around him in a hug. He embraced her back, informing her quietly that he would see her in the morning, and to get some rest. Whispering one last thank you, she followed Oliver’s little sister up the stairs. She hastily threw back an appreciative glance towards Moira. It would be impossible for her to convey her gratitude to the Queens for what they were doing for her. Sure, Felicity had protested at first, but she was silently relieved that she wouldn’t have to go home and remain in her apartment alone. There would have been no way she’d be able to sleep after the traumatic events of today.

Pushing a door to a very large, grand bedroom that was pretty much the size of Felicity’s entire apartment, Thea ushered her inside. Gazing around the room in curiosity, Felicity vaguely wondered why the general scent of the room that hung in the air was so familiar and comforting. When Thea indicated she should make herself comfortable, the blonde hopped up onto the massive queen-sized (ha!), memory foam bed, marvelling at how the mattress sunk under her weight. She was so busy poking and squishing the feather down pillows that she barely noticed what Thea was doing.

“Here,” Oliver’s little sister smiled, passing her a pair of light grey sweatshorts and a dark blue t-shirt, both of which didn’t appear to be female clothes. Were they Oliver's? Felicity took them without complaint. She’d been wearing heels and this short gold dress all evening, and she desperately needed to feel grounded by wearing something comfy and warm again. “That dress is stunningly beautiful, but not ideal for sleeping in.”

“Thank you,” Felicity murmured. She hesitated before starting to undress, but Thea respectfully turned away from her. They were both girls; Felicity didn’t exactly mind changing in front of her. “I agree, it’s a lovely dress. Thank you for letting me borrow it.”

Thea’s eyebrows shot up in bemusement. That just confirmed for Felicity that her earlier suspicions that Oliver had been lying about it being a dress borrowed from his little sister were accurate. “Girl, I _wish_ I’d let you borrow that dress. I _want_ that dress. Why’d you think it was mine?”

Shaking her head, Felicity began braiding her hair, loosening it of the hairspray she’d put it earlier. “Your brother is a lying liar who lies.”

“Oh yeah, you can say that again,” Thea muttered. “Bathroom’s through that door there. Breakfast is usually served at seven, and feel free to come down in PJs. I usually do.” She reached out and wrapped her arms around Felicity in a tight hug for a few seconds, triggering the blonde to stiffen up. Squeezing her shoulder, the younger woman told her, “I’m sorry you had such a crappy evening. Trust me, dates with my brother don’t normally involve bombs or international jewel thieves.”

“Oh, no! Thea, we’re not -” The door shut with a click behind Oliver’s little sister before Felicity completed her protest.

The rest of her sentence died in her throat, an awful distasteful emotion swelling in her chest. Because there was a tiny pleased, happy twinge at the back of her brain at the idea of her and Oliver dating. Faceplanting into the bed, Felicity violently expelled those thoughts from her mind. Oliver was a werewolf, the vigilante, and as far as she was concerned, he was eternally unavailable. There was no possibility he would ever like her in any romantic sort of way anyway.

Sighing to herself, Felicity slipped underneath the covers and blankets. She was here at the Queen mansion now; she might as well get a good night’s rest in this wonderfully soft bed. Clutching one of the pillows to her chest, she cleared her mind of all her worries and troubles as much as she could, giving in to her exhaustion. Finally, Felicity was able to relax.

With the remainder of a distant notion about a large, sandy brown wolf with amber eyes dancing on the fringes of her consciousness, she fell back into the blissful, quiet darkness.

Not knowing what time it was or what was going on, Felicity startled awake an indistinguishable amount of time later. There was a boulder of uneasiness and nervousness crushing her chest, causing her breaths to come out short and harsh. There was a chance she’d been woken by a nightmare that had triggered a fear response in her, forcing her into consciousness, but she couldn’t remember what her dream was about.

Sweeping her eyes across the room, the blonde tightened her grasp on the covers as she tried to get an understanding of why exactly she’d woken up.

Barely a second later, she had to clap a hand over her mouth to stifle her scream of surprise and horror.

Cast in darkness as he stood in the corner, there was a giant, tawny wolf watching her sleep with gleaming golden eyes.

The magnificent beast growled, brushing the floorboards with his tail as it flicked agitatedly from side to side. Due to the low light levels, it was difficult to make out the dark brownish, black mantle that ran all the way down the wolf’s spine to the end of his tail, and the blackish socks on his paws, but it was most definitely Oliver, in his stunningly handsome, powerful shifted form. As soon as Felicity made eye contact with the wolf, the creature broke off his stare and averted those beautiful amber eyes, slinking along the wall like a massive, sleek shadow.

Felicity’s mouth suddenly felt very dry as she whispered, “Oliver?” questioningly, her voice coming out fairly raspy. This was the first time she was seeing Oliver in his wolf form, and she could feel tears pricking in her eyes because _wow_. This was _incredible_.

The wolf released a throaty, deep rumble, so loud that Felicity could feel the vibrations of it through the bed. Slowly moving towards her, Oliver stepped into the light radiated by the half moon’s reflection shining through the large bay windows. One of them was open, the curtains billowing in the light night breeze, which explained how he’d entered the house without raising any sort of alarm. It was when Oliver revealed himself in this light that Felicity realised what a gross under-exaggeration he’d made when he claimed his wolf form was ‘big’, coming up to ‘about Diggle’s waist’. The sandy wolf before her was the size of a small horse, at least five feet tall, within a few inches of her own height.

She didn’t realise that she was subconsciously reaching her hand out to the wolf until he nudged her fingers carefully with his muzzle. Felicity drew back in shock with a gasp, which caused Oliver to back away a few steps with a worried whine. Swallowing, the blonde extended her hand again. This time, the wolf didn’t just cautiously graze his muzzle against her fingers; he leant forward and pushed his forehead into her hand, encouraging her to stroke between his ears.

Oliver’s fur wasn’t as soft as she imagined it would be. It was wiry and coarse, thick under her hands. It made more sense in her mind than the fluffy wolf she’d pictured, because of course, his pelt would need to be tough; he was constantly exposed to the wind, cold and wet, his fur had to be insulating and waterproof. Still, it was nice to be able to touch such a massive, majestic wild animal without having her hand bitten off.

“How was your run?” she asked in a quiet voice, her confidence returning to her. “Was it good?”

He huffed quietly in reply, pulling his head away to plonk down on his hindquarters beside the bed. He blinked his giant golden eyes at her, tilting his head sideways a little bit.

“I’m going to take that as an ‘it was okay’. Meaning that you didn’t get shot at by the police or somebody thinking that you were either an escaped exotic pet, a feral animal or a particularly large stray dog. Although, I’ve never seen a dog as big as you before. Do dogs the size of horses exist? Do wolves the size of horses even exist? Probably not. I imagine you’re one of the biggest wolves in existence right now.” She blushed when the wolf rumbled, the noise almost sounding like a canine version of a chuckle. “Sorry. Babbling again. I tend to that when I’m tired, or when I'm woken up at insane times during the night. Speaking of which - what are you doing in this room?”

The wolf seemed to frown, cocking his head sideways even more at her. He emitted a strange noise that resembled a purr as his eyes darted all the way around the bedroom, before landing on the bed and drawing up towards her.

It suddenly hit her, and Felicity flushed crimson in embarrassment. “This is your bedroom, isn’t it?”

The wolf nodded.

“I’m going to murder your little sister,” she muttered.

That same chuckle-like noise erupted from the animal again, and Felicity scraped her teeth over her lip when she saw he was gazing at her fondly. He raised onto his hind legs to place his forepaws on the side of the bed, towering over her.

Felicity scooted up to the headboard. “Oh, wait this is your - I’ll get out and move into another room, you probably want to sleep here -”

The wolf hauled himself onto the bed in front of her, shaking out his fur in such a way that it caused the entire bed to quake beneath them. Scrambling for purchase on the headboard, Felicity stared at Oliver with eyes as round as plates, struggling to find words. She remained speechless as the wolf settled down at the foot of the bed, lying on top of her legs as he crossed his paws and rested his head. Due to his size, the wolf took up the entire bottom half of the bed, and was essentially half on top of her.

“O-okay,” she squeaked. “Or you could sleep on top of me, here.”

The wolf exhaled loudly and closed his eyes, ears flicking back and forth. His whiskers twitched as he relaxed, slipping down into a slumber. He was asleep within half a minute, massive form rising and falling with each one of his breaths, that came out sounding like wind rushing across the water.

Felicity was frozen, not knowing what to do. Should she push the wolf off her and risk having him snap her arms off? Or should she just let him sleep there, crushing her legs?

She decided that having circulation half cut off to her legs was better than having no arms at all, so shuffled back down so her head was on her pillow. Her small movements caused the wolf’s lips to raise up in small snarls, so she was glad she didn’t go with shoving him to the side in the end.

They were definitely going to have a talk tomorrow. Because she needed to know what happened to the Dodger for her own sake of mind, and she needed Oliver to explain to her what being in his pack meant. She also needed to maybe discuss what personal boundaries they were establishing between them, because she was very confused about that forehead kiss he’d given her during the charity auction. (And they needed to talk about why he wanted to sleep on top of her in wolf form, although that was likely going to be something very awkward to question him on).

“Goodnight, Oliver.”

The wolf purred his own goodnight in response.

Yes, sleep now, talk tomorrow.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos, or comment :) It is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


	4. Dodger (Aftermath)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was in over her head, but that might be because Felicity woke up with a wolf sleeping on top of her.
> 
> And then she had to eat breakfast with the Queen family, who were entirely too interested in her. And then, on top of that, she had to meet a government agent involved with Oliver somehow.
> 
> But hey, at least she had her dog puns, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, next chapter. Muse is back for this fic, I don't know.
> 
> Thank you everybody for all your incredible support, amazing messages and lovely comments. Hearing and seeing all your enthusiasm and excitement has really helped my muse and encouraged me to keep going :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Bright sunlight danced on her eyelids, causing Felicity to shift in her sleep and turn over. She stretched her arms, exposing her back to the heat. The light, however, continued to assault her eyes, despite the fact she covered them with her hands. Groaning, the blonde pawed around the bed for a pillow to stuff over her head, but on trying to grab one, froze in realisation. Felicity wasn’t in her own bed.

Jolting upwards, grabbing the extra-large, extra-soft duvet and yanking it around her, Felicity took a searching look around the room she was sleeping in. Oliver’s bedroom, she remembered. Oliver’s bedroom which his little sister had tricked her into sleeping in. Oliver’s bedroom with his bed that he’d discovered her sleeping in last night. Only everything else was rather blurry, the memories hazy in her mind due to the shock she’d been in the previous night. 

Panic fleeting over her mind, Felicity glanced down and was relieved to find she wasn’t naked, and instead was dressed in a loose-fitting blue shirt and sweatshorts; the shirt and shorts that Thea had given her, that she was sure belonged to a man. Belonged to _Oliver_.

A deep rumble startled her out of her thoughts. Gathering the sheets around her, Felicity tried to slide to the edge of the bed, but found herself pinned down, legs trapped under a massive weight. When she glanced downwards, a wide smile spread across her face and she gave a deep sigh.

Oliver was curled up in his huge tawny wolf form at the foot of the bed. His tail was covering his snout, and he appeared to be in a deep state of sleep, content to squish Felicity’s legs beneath his body. The wolf was tensed, and even asleep, he looked as if he was prepared to attack. With the sunlight at full strength as it beamed through the bay windows, illuminating the room brightly, she was finally able to get a proper look at the archer’s wolf form. Last night, it had been too dark to see him and admire him in all his glory.

His fur was a lot lighter than she’d expected; his sandy pelt had streaks of blond and russet in it. His black mantle and socks appeared a chocolate brown in this direct light. Overall, he looked more russet than tawny brown. Snuffling, the wolf pricked his ears and moved ever so slightly so his head was resting on top of her stomach, rather than her thighs like before. Despite the fact Felicity knew that Oliver was a dangerous, intelligent and lethal predator by nature, he looked endearing and remarkably adorable. She wondered for a second why he hadn’t transformed back into human form overnight, but didn’t dwell on it. She may have only seen him once in this form, but she was growing very fond of wolf Oliver.

Leaning forward a little bit as she scooted up against the headboard, Felicity ran one hand delicately down Oliver’s side, fingers threading through his coarse fur. The wolf’s muscles spasmed and flexed in preparation for a fight, but then his nose twitched and his ears swivelled around. He instantly relaxed as soon as he recognised her. Lifting his head, the archer tucked his paws beneath him and blinked lazily at the blonde. He lay there for a moment, content to stare tiredly at her as Felicity continued gently stroking over his tawny fur. After a few minutes, however, Oliver yawned, exposing sharp, gleaming canines, before he rose to brush his snout against Felicity’s shoulder gently.

“Good morning,” she greeted him quietly, staring into those deep amber wolf eyes with a smile. “I’m sorry about sleeping in your bed last night. Although... it seems you made yourself comfy on top of my legs. I can’t feel my feet right now, just so you know.”

Oliver licked over his nose before growling, settling back down again, although this time, mostly beside her and not on top of her. He seemed very drowsy still, content to continue lying down and bathe in the warm sunlight streaming down onto the bed. Whilst the wolf snuffled carefully at one of her palms, Felicity cast a glance sideways to check the time. It was almost quarter to seven. The realisation triggered her to jump in alarm; Thea had said that breakfast was served at seven. She and Moira would be expecting her to join them.

She tried to get out of the bed, but the wolf gave a fierce snarl and pressed one of his giant paws onto her chest, causing her to collapse back down into the mattress with a huff. “Oliver, I’ve got to get up!” she protested. “Your mom and sister invited me to breakfast. You’ve got to get up and shift back too, they’ll be expecting you as well.”

Baring his teeth, the wolf crawled over to her and to her exasperation, began lying on top of Felicity again, so she couldn’t move. Knowing that Oliver was relaxed, Felicity attempted to shove him off her, but he was so heavy that it was like trying to move a boulder. When she’d become so comfortable with the archer in his wolf form, she had no idea, especially since last night was the first time she saw him in it. She groaned at him to get off her, but the wolf growled back and began nuzzling her neck with his muzzle. His fur almost tickled her. Felicity winced, however, when pain blossomed and spread down her back and arm. Yes, bruising. From the bomb collar. Painful, painful bruising.

Oliver’s nose twitched wildly and the wolf released a soft, sad-sounding croon, licking at her face. Wow, so Oliver was definitely much more open and affectionate as a wolf. Good to know. No doubt he was sensing her pain through chemosignals, as the croon tapered off into a worried whine when he accidentally put too much pressure onto the bruises with his muzzle, making her flinch away from him.

“I’m fine,” she tried to reassure him. Oliver rumbled and butted her hand away with his snout when she raised it to push him away. “Please! I promise you, I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me that badly.”

That was obviously the wrong thing to say, because the wolf’s golden eyes hardened and he snarled again protectively.

“Felicity?”

Both the blonde and the wolf jolted in surprise when Thea’s hesitant voice sounded from the other side of the closed and locked bedroom door. Oliver immediately leapt off the bed sleekly, crouching so that he was hidden. His ears flickered back against his skull and he looked annoyed at his little sister’s interruption.

“Yes, Thea?” Felicity called out.

“Um, Raisa is going to start serving breakfast in ten minutes. I wasn’t sure if you were awake.”

“I’m up. I’ll be down in five.” She paused before asking nervously, “Um, I don’t have a change of clothes… could I borrow some please?”

“I’m leaving some clothes for you outside the door.”

“Thank you so much,” Felicity sighed in relief. “I’ll definitely be down in five.”

“Alright.” There was a beat of silence. “Is Ollie in there with you?”

Felicity rolled her eyes and glanced down at the wolf, who was now sitting up and batting at one of the tassels of the bed throw curiously. “He’s… in the shower.”

“Okay! I’ll see you soon.”

“Thea!” Felicity called back to her.

“Hmm?”

“That was an impish, devious thing you did, tricking me into sleeping in your brother’s bedroom.”

“Are you really complaining?” came Thea’s laugh. Quiet footsteps outside the room signalled her departure.

Sighing, Felicity stepped off the bed, standing and managing, somehow, to avoid tripping and bruising her ego even more than she usually did in the mornings. She blinked in shock when she looked over towards where the wolf had last been and found him missing. It was only once the shower started up inside the bathroom, the door of which was now closed rather than open as it had been before, that she realised that Oliver must have shifted back without her noticing.

The blonde forcefully squashed that feeling of disappointment sparking at the back of her mind. She’d been hoping that Oliver would remain in his wolf form for slightly longer. Quickly darting outside to scoop up the black skinny jeans and plaid shirt Thea had left for her. Felicity dressed hastily, touching up her make-up from last night with supplies from her purse after checking her cell phone. Diggle had sent a message about the possibility of the three of them going out for a drink later on, but there were no pressing matters that Felicity had to attend to, thank god.

The sound of the bathroom door swinging open startled her, causing Felicity to turn around as she combed her fingers through her tangled hair. It took every ounce of concentration the blonde had to stop herself from allowing her jaw to drop. Oliver was dripping wet and only had a white towel wrapped and hanging low around his hips to cover himself up. His scars, abdomen and chest were on full display, and he seemed so utterly confident with his half-naked body as he walked out of the bathroom to grab boxer briefs, pants and a shirt. Felicity couldn’t help but release a wispy, squeaky kind of breath. A normal human being wouldn’t have been able to hear it, but Oliver… was a wolf. He had enhanced senses. Of course, he heard. She was instantly met with fierce, piercing blue wolf eyes.

“Sorry,” she said quickly. “Um - that’s - I’ll - I’ll leave so you can change.”

“It’s okay,” Oliver replied softly. “I’ll go back into the bathroom.”

“No, it’s your bedroom and I didn’t know last night, I’m not meant to be in here at all, I’m imposing -”

“You’re not -” the wolf protested.

Both of them stopped at the same time, blushing. Oliver averted his gaze, shuffling his feet awkwardly as he yanked his shirt on with one hand, the other cautiously keeping a firm grasp of the towel around his waist to make sure it didn’t fall down. And… Felicity was still staring at him. Beginning to feel even more uncomfortable than before, Felicity just motioned that she was going to go, heading for the bedroom door to give the archer his privacy.

Before she could completely exit, however, she heard the wolf call her name nervously, and she glanced back. Felicity blinked in shock as she realised that Oliver had somehow changed into his new pants within the couple of seconds it took her to walk to the door.

“I really don’t mind about you staying in here last night,” the archer said. “Thea might have tricked you into it, and she might have had an ulterior motive, but she did it with good intentions. She wanted you to be comfortable and feel secure.”

“I still feel bad,” she admitted. “It’s your bedroom. I intruded in your personal space.”

Oliver gave a hesitant, sad smile, glancing around the room. “This isn’t my space anymore, Felicity,” he shrugged. “I haven’t slept in this bedroom for two weeks.”

Managing to conceal her surprise by maintaining a blank expression, Felicity questioned cautiously, “Is there… a reason for that?”

“This place may be my territory, but it’s practically foreign to me,” the wolf explained. “My mom claims she hasn’t changed everything - but everything’s changed. The smells, the air density, the feeling of being in each room. So you’re not the only one who feels like you’re intruding here.”

“Oh,” the blonde exclaimed, blinking rapidly. That sort of made sense. Back at MIT, she hadn’t been able to stay around in Cooper’s dorms after his death due to her still feeling like the room belonged to him, sensing him inhabiting the space in a sort of strange sixth sense.

She hadn’t realised that Oliver had walked towards her until he was only four feet away. “I’m… so sorry about what happened at the auction,” Oliver swallowed. “I never intended to put you in danger like that. I… understand if you want off the team. Especially after what happened last night.”

She hadn’t expected an apology, so Felicity sort of froze whilst listening to him speak. The shame in the wolf’s voice confused her. “I came into this knowing there was a risk of getting caught in the crossfire of some violence, Oliver,” she reassured him gently. “And sure, last night I was… pretty shaken up and terrified about what happened But you and Dig protected me. You stopped the Dodger, and you even helped me out afterwards by letting me stay in your house. I’m not dropping out. I’m even more determined to remain onboard this crazy vigilante train, to stop villains from hurting innocents like I was hurt.”

“I didn’t help you,” the wolf muttered.

“Pardon?”

“I didn’t help you after the bomb collar thing. If anything, I scared you even more.”

Felicity frowned, bemused. “Um… how, exactly?”

Silent, Oliver seemed to take a pause to study her body language and expression. Felicity was concerned to see that he looked genuinely anxious and upset about whatever issue he was thinking about. “You weren’t… frightened?” he questioned, voice quiet and hesitant, “Of my wolf?”

Realisation swept over her. Felicity swore she could physically feel her heart palpitating inside her chest, a deep ache of sadness and sympathy setting in. Oliver thought himself a monster. He was wary of his wolf, thought that it was a beast to be feared and shunned. She would even go as far to say that he was hostile about his true lycanthrope nature. It wasn’t particularly surprising; Diggle had mentioned that he’d reacted negatively to first seeing the archer in his wolf form, that he’d drawn his gun and nearly shot him. Oliver had probably expected Felicity to run away screaming.

“I think your wolf is beautiful,” Felicity replied honestly. “He was expressive and affectionate. He was big… but I wasn’t scared at all. I actually felt a lot safer with him around.” Her lips ticked up in a small, shy smile. “With _you_ around.”

Oliver appeared astonished.

It didn’t look as if he was going to be able to come up with a response to that, so Felicity just tapped the door. “Thea’s most likely wondering where I am. I’ll meet you downstairs for breakfast in a minute?”

He nodded, remaining silent.

“Um… Would it be possible for us to talk later?” the blonde asked hesitantly. “It’s just - I have a few questions after last night and…”

She trailed off, biting her lip, but the wolf just nodded again, not meeting her eyes. Felicity gently closed the bedroom door behind her as she left the room. She exhaled slowly, taking a few seconds to centre herself slightly. No doubt she’d just shaken Oliver’s views of himself quite a bit. In hindsight, using the word ‘beautiful’ to describe him in wolf form was probably a bit much…

Shaking herself, Felicity began attempting to find her way downstairs to find the living room. Attempting, because this mansion was like a giant maze, impossible to navigate. After around five minutes of wandering through corridors and around corners, hopelessly lost, the blonde finally managed to stumble upon the grand staircase. She wanted to fall to her knees and cry to the heavens in relief.

The dining room was the next room along to the living room, and since Felicity could hear voices from inside, she decided to warily head in, fiddling with her hands. Thea appeared like a typical teenager at breakfast, dressed in her PJs and slouched across two chairs on one side of the table, munching on toast. Moira, however, was seated at the head of the table fully dressed, eating her full English breakfast just as gracefully as one would eat at a business dinner.

There was a very noticeable absence at the table that made Felicity feel intensely sad. Walter should be sitting here with his family, enjoying their morning meal, but he’d been kidnapped. It was a stark reminder of why exactly she was here at the Queen mansion in the first place - because she’d got involved in a werewolf vigilante’s insane crusade to save the city, in order to help track down said werewolf’s missing step-father.

“Good morning, Miss Smoak,” the Queen matriarch greeted her.

“Good morning,” Felicity responded, plastering a shaky grin onto her face. She was a little anxious about sitting down and eating breakfast with the Queens, especially since Moira could sometimes appear and act so intimidating.

Thea dropped her feet to the floor with a clunk, but not before she kicked out the chair beside her. “Come sit next to me. Raisa’s bringing through the coffee in a minute, but help yourself to food and stuff.”

Flicking a lock of hair behind her ear shyly, Felicity slid into the chair, glancing towards Moira. “Thank you so much for your hospitality. I don’t think I’d have rested last night after what happened if I hadn’t been here, and you’ve been so kind, making me feel comfortable and safe - honestly, thank you so much.”

“Any friend of Oliver’s is a friend of the family’s,” Moira informed her with a warm smile. “You’re very welcome, Miss Smoak.”

“Felicity, please, Mrs Queen.”

“Then I insist on you calling me Moira.” Felicity opened her mouth to protest, because there was absolutely no way she would be able to do that - Moira was simply too distinguished for the blonde to even consider calling her by her first name aloud, but Moira didn’t give her the chance to, carrying on, “You work at Queen Consolidated, don’t you, Felicity?”

“Yes, in the IT department.”

“You’ll have to forgive me, my memory isn’t what it once was - was it, in fact, you who set up custom military-grade security laptops for the board members last year, after the cyber attack on our financial sector?”

Felicity was astounded that Moira even remembered that. “Yes, that was me.”

Moira nodded, her expression of curiosity morphing into a look of fierce approval. “Yes, I wondered why I felt as if I’d met you before. That was some magnificent work, Felicity.”

“Stop being so boring with all the pleasantries, both of you,” Thea complained. She was starting to serve not only herself, but Felicity as well, piling on slices of toast and and scrambled eggs. “I wanna know about how she and Ollie ended up together.”

“Oh, no, we’re - we’re not together,” Felicity immediately protested.

“Uh huh?” Thea quirked an eyebrow, a smirk passing over her face. “So how come you and he shared his bed last night?”

“I slept on the couch, Thea.”

Oliver truly was her knight in shining armour, Felicity mused, as the archer strode into the room to instantly shoot down his little sister’s insinuation. His hand gently squeezed the blonde’s shoulder in consolation before he slipped around to the other side of the table, ignoring the place setting at the opposite head of the table so he could sit opposite her.

“On the couch?”

“Yes, after _you_ tricked Felicity into sleeping in my bedroom in some absurd matchmaking farce.”

“Pardon me, Thea did _what_?” Moira questioned, voice incredulous.

Thea ignored her mother, almost sounding disappointed as she asked, “Wait, so you two aren’t together?”

“No,” Oliver replied. “We’re just very good, close friends. Good morning to you too, by the way.”

Rolling her eyes, the wolf’s little sister pressed on, “So how did you two meet?”

“I have to admit, I’m intrigued to know this as well,” Moira said, taking a sip from her glass of orange juice.

The wolf exchanged a look with Felicity, raising his eyebrows as if offering her to take the lead on this one. This would, after all, have to be a lie that she was comfortable with. She couldn’t very well tell Oliver’s family that she met him when he asked her to retrieve information about an assassin’s next hit off a bullet-ridden laptop. Nodding, Felicity delicately poured herself a glass of water to accompany the coffee that Raisa had just brought in. She quickly mouthed a word of thanks to the maid before beginning to explain: “Oliver came to the IT department after he spilt a latte over his laptop and I was able to rescue his documents and data from it. He is awful when it comes to technology.”

“I take offence to that,” the wolf snarked. “I’m not that awful.”

“Oliver, you tried to plug the mouse cable for your set-up into the plug socket.”

“That was one incident.”

“You’ve accidentally deleted every single app on your iPhone somehow at least three times.”

“Touch screens are difficult.”

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, from then on, he’s just always come to me when he needs tech advice. Our meetings in IT evolved into meetings at coffee shops and Big Belly Burger… I’ve been helping him set up the network systems at Verdant.” She shrugged, finishing off lamely, “And that’s how we become friends.”

Thea was beaming happily by the time that Felicity stopped talking. “Aw. That’s sweet. So much better than the meeting I was expecting.”

“What were you expecting?” Felicity questioned, tilting her head as she sipped at her coffee.

“That you shacked up in some club in Starling where both of you were drunk and ended up bothering each other afterwards and eventually became friends, but you’re working your way to the romantic level.”

“Thea,” Moira snapped.

“What?” Thea blinked innocently.

“Oliver’s not that type of person anymore,” the Queen matriarch said sternly. “And I think his friendship with Felicity is a remarkable thing, considering how difficult he’s been finding it to re-adapt to society after being… away, for five years. He shouldn’t feel pressured to jump back into a relationship.”

“I’m right here,” Oliver muttered, glaring down at his plate as he poked his marmalade covered crumpet around with his fork. Felicity shot him a sympathetic look, already beginning to feel very awkward as the fourth wheel in the room - she couldn’t imagine what it felt like having your mother and sister talking about you in front of you, ignoring your presence.

“He hasn’t been on a proper date with _anybody_ since he’s been back,” Thea proclaimed. “Forgive me for hoping that my big brother was finally taking that big step back into putting himself out there socially, looking for a partner.”

“Still right here,” the wolf repeated.

Before Moira and Thea could get into a full blown argument about the issue of Oliver dating - or _not dating_ \- there was a sharp rap on the door frame, causing all four of them to startle. Oliver reacted the most violently, hand scrambling on the tabletop to grab at a butter knife, in an instinctive response to the surprise. Luckily, Moira and Thea didn’t seem to notice the gleam of gold that sparked in the archer’s eyes like Felicity did, just frowning concernedly at him.

“Good morning, Queens,” Diggle addressed them cordially, before acknowledging, “Felicity,” with a wink and a small smile. “Sorry to interrupt. Mr Queen, Ms Michaels and an associate of hers are here to speak with you about the events of last night?”

Thea groaned loudly, dropping her head with a bang to a table. Moira also did not appear particularly pleased. It was Oliver’s response to this news that interested Felicity the most, however. She had no idea who this Ms Michaels person was, but just hearing the name had triggered the wolf to go rigid, a hard, blank facade sweeping over his face that did nothing to hide the trepidation and frustration she could see in his eyes, bubbling below the surface.

“Which associate?” Oliver questioned, his voice tight.

Diggle seemed to catch on pretty quickly. “Not Waller, if that’s what you’re asking. Johnson.”

“Good.” The wolf stood, brushing himself down. He held himself in a tense, agitated manner as he apologised, “Excuse me for a few minutes,” in a rather dejected tone. He exited the room, keeping his gaze downcast so that it didn’t meet Felicity’s own worried, yet curious one. “Dig, feel free to help yourself to breakfast. I won’t be long, and we need to take Felicity back to her apartment.”

“I actually have work,” Felicity offered, but the wolf swept out of the room before she was able to finish her sentence.

“You don’t,” Moira told her. “I called this morning to notify your supervisor you were to be given a day off due to a traumatic experience with full pay, and that it not be taken out of your sick leave.”

“Oh! That’s so kind of you, Mrs Qu- Moira, thank you.”

“I thought you might appreciate spending the day with Oliver to recover a little,” Moira smiled.

“Yeah, if she ever gets Ollie back from Michaels,” Thea grumbled, kicking the leg of the table as she stuffed a piece of turkey bacon into her mouth.

Felicity immediately fully turned to face Thea and Moira, who were both eyeing the doorway where the archer had disappeared with disdain. “Who’s Ms Michaels?”

“Ollie’s stalker,” Thea muttered.

“Now, that’s a bit harsh,” Moira reprimanded her.

“That’s what it seems like. She’s here every other day.”

Diggle stepped inside the dining room, taking Oliver up on his offer so he could slide into one of the spare seats, fetching himself a glass of OJ. “Ms Michaels is a senior agent of a US government faction,” he informed Felicity. “She keeps an eye on Oliver.”

“She’s essentially his more official babysitter than Diggle,” Thea supplied.

“And why does he need a more official babysitter?” Felicity asked, a little alarmed.

Moira filled in, “The island Oliver was stranded on for five years belonged to the Chinese government, and was used as a remote jail for high-security prisoners. When he was rescued several months ago, the Chinese government accused him of being a spy for the United States government. He was quickly cleared and they released him of charges, under the conditions that he is watched for an undetermined period of time by a member of the US government to ensure he doesn’t get involved in any other international instances. Ms Michaels is meant to check in with him once every month, but Oliver seems to still have his knack for getting into trouble, so she seems to be visiting him almost twice every week nowadays.”

Judging by Diggle’s impassive expression, Felicity knew that there was something more definitely going on that Oliver’s family didn’t know about. She had a faint idea in her head of why exactly the wolf was being watched. If the US government knew about an evolved lycanthrope that was able to fully shift into wolf form, they would undoubtedly be watching that person, or have some sort of hold over them. Did the NSA and CIA know about Oliver being a wolf? Did that mean they knew about him being the vigilante?!

“Oliver never told me about that,” she said quietly.

“I don’t think it’s something he’s particularly thrilled about,” Moira replied, and it appeared as if she was ever so slightly grimacing. “I wouldn’t worry, dear. Ms Michaels is actually a very lovely woman. She has Oliver’s best interests in mind.”

“Helps that we know a direct pressure point of hers if things go sideways,” Thea mumbled into her bacon.

Moira sighed in exasperation, but said nothing.

“Lyla’s my ex-wife,” Diggle said flatly.

Felicity could tell her eyes widened in shock. “Oh,” was all she was able to choke out. Oliver’s government babysitter was his bodyguard’s ex-partner? That couldn’t be a coincidence. Dig was observing her with a knowing look that told Felicity that her suspicions weren’t inaccurate.

“Hey, at least if he jumps out of a car, you can snitch on him to Ms Michaels again to make him suffer,” Thea said.

Felicity snickered. “I’m sorry, _again_? He’s already done that?”

“It’s Oliver,” was all Diggle said shortly, as if in explanation. That being said - it was enough. “Speaking of whom - he’s motioning that he wants me outside. And by the look of it, you too, Felicity.” He quickly downed the rest of his OJ, rising to his feet. “Thank you, Mrs Queen, Miss Queen. I’ll see you both later.”

“Bye!” Thea grinned. “Bye, Felicity! It was nice meeting you.”

“And you,” Felicity responded. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me, last night and this morning.”

“It was our pleasure,” Moira said, smiling. “You should join us for dinner sometime.”

“That would be wonderful,” she agreed. “Thea, I’ll drop your clothes off after I’ve changed and washed them sometime during the week.”

Waving her hand dismissively, Oliver’s little sister suggested, “Keep them. Those skinny jeans look amazing on you.”

“Thank you.”

She gave both the Queen women one last word of thanks, making sure she got her appreciation for what they’d done for her; they’d welcomed her into their home and making her feel comfortable and accepted, and Felicity would be eternally grateful. Diggle followed her outside through the front doors. They both paused on the porch steps. Oliver was pacing intensely on the lawn fifty feet away, a woman standing with her arms crossed and watching him. It looked as if the wolf was being told off by the woman, who Felicity assumed was Ms Michaels, because she caught sight of his face as he prowled and he seemed very aggravated.

The woman glanced over her shoulder back to them, calling, “You can come over. I’ve already talked him down from the biting-heads-off stage.”

Diggle shrugged and lead them down to the woman. She looked friendly and approachable, with a small smile on her lips. She was definitely a government agent judging by the black tactical sort of gear she was wearing. As soon as Felicity strode up to her, Ms Michaels narrowed her eyes and swept her gaze over her, as if scrutinising whether or not Felicity was a threat.

After a moment, she relaxed, reaching her hand out. “I’m Lyla Michaels, Oliver’s ARGUS handler. You must be Felicity Smoak?”

“That’s me,” she replied, shaking her hand, although the words _ARGUS handler_ were bouncing around her brain, heightening her curiosity. “You’re Oliver’s more official babysitter, in Thea’s words, right? Does that mean you know about…?”

“The wolf thing and the hood thing?” Lyla completed. She was smirking fairly slyly and smugly, casting a glance over at the archer, who whipped around to snarl and bare his canines at her. “Yeah, I know. I’m the only reason he’s not in jail or being dissected in a research lab right now.”

The archer jabbed a finger at her with a fierce growl and a flash of amber wolf eyes. “You can’t keep lording that over me each time you want me to do your bidding, or every time you come to yell at me.”

“You should be grateful that I dissuaded Waller from accompanying me to see you today,” Lyla insisted, her voice sharp. “And that I brought Agent Johnson rather than Agent Davies or Agent Dodkin.”

“More like Agent Dickhead and Agent Douchebag,” Oliver murmured, causing both Felicity and Diggle to snort, Dig in amusement whilst Felicity in sheer disbelief.

“Right, that’s it,” Lyla shook her head. “If you’re going to act like a child, I’ll treat you like a child. Go and sit in the car with Johnson.”

Glaring at her, the wolf replied curtly, “I’m not leaving you here with Felicity.”

His words sent a rush of elation and satisfaction coursing through the blonde, which then faded to be replaced with a feeling of nervousness and faint fear. Why exactly was the wolf reluctant to leave Felicity alone with the government agent? Was Lyla going to threaten her? Maybe she wasn’t meant to know about the lycanthrope and vigilante thing, and Lyla was going to ensure her silence one way or another, violently or otherwise.

“I’m not going to touch her, Oliver,” Lyla reassured him.

“You swear?”

“I swear.”

There was a beat of frigid silence. “You’ve broken your promises before,” Oliver muttered, glancing away.

Lyla looked hurt by that, so the blonde quickly changed the subject.

“So how did you become Oliver’s babysitter?” Felicity questioned.

“She’s not my babysitter,” the wolf grumbled, shooting her a wounded look before stalking off to begin pacing across the lawn again. Diggle followed him this time, observing his charge with a tired, irritated expression.

Lyla aimed a friendly smile towards Felicity, however, and the blonde got the vaguest feeling that they were going to end up being good friends in the future, especially if they both weren’t afraid to put Oliver in his place. “I’ve been defending Oliver from the head of ARGUS for the past two years; their conclusion was that if I cared so much about him running around on rooftops shooting arrows at criminals and lurking in the shadows as a wolf, I should be put on babysitting duty. Make sure he doesn’t try to do anything that’s not above his jurisdiction as an ARGUS freelance operative. And the story of how he became involved with ARGUS is not one for today, it’s far too long and complicated.” She heaved a sigh. “John’s managed to keep him in line pretty well since he’s been back, but trouble seems to accumulate around Oliver, I swear. Trying to wrangle him in is like trying to control this hyperactive puppy that’s escaped his leash.”

“Except it’s a snappy, unsociable and surly puppy,” Diggle added. Oliver halted in place, blue eyes becoming fully golden as he glowered at his bodyguard aggressively. “A puppy that is very disobedient and rebellious.”

“Alright, I get your point,” Oliver spat. “I’m problematic to deal with. Except you _can’t_ shout at me this time,” he pointed towards Lyla, “Because I was perfectly within my authority to deal out what justice I did to the Dodger last night.”

Felicity swallowed, glancing over at him. She was eager to know what exactly had happened to the man that had threatened to blow her up with a bomb collar, but was equally dreading it. “What did you do?”

“He went too far, that’s what he did,” Lyla scowled. Growling, the archer surged towards them, nearly trembling in his fury. The ARGUS agent didn’t seem phased, however, standing her ground against the enraged wolf. “He risked exposing himself to the public in a reckless act born from an impulsive urge to establish himself as the alpha wolf.”

“He hurt Felicity!” Oliver roared.

Felicity froze, those three words which had been shouted with such passion and emotion causing butterflies to erupt in her stomach. Immediately, Lyla took a wary step back from the wolf, her angry expression morphing into one of understanding and sympathy. Shaking, the archer tore his eyes off his handler to look over at the blonde. The amber had disappeared, leaving vivid cobalt behind that Felicity felt bore into her very soul. She hated the torment and anxiety she could sense radiating from him.

“The Dodger hurt you,” he repeated, voice much softer than before, and a little hoarse with emotion. “He threatened to kill you, hurt you more than he already had and - I lost it. I care about you, Felicity, you’re part of my pack. It’s my duty to protect you. The things he was saying… what he wanted to do to you… I couldn’t just sit there and listen to him as I waited for the SCPD to pick him up. He had to pay for what he did. He had to become an example for others who might consider trying to hurt me by going through my pack.”

Her throat thick, she questioned, “What did you do to him?”

He averted his gaze, ashamed.

“Oliver shifted into wolf form and… _roughed him up_ , a little bit,” Diggle explained slowly. “Nothing to get angry over. The Dodger doesn’t have any life-threatening injuries, but he’ll not be walking at all in jail for a while.”

“Oliver,” Felicity whispered, shocked.

The wolf ran both of his hands over his face and head, gritting his teeth before he turned away and once again restarted his pacing. Maybe it was his canine nature to become incredibly restless when confronted. The blonde, however, was shaken. Oliver had hurt the Dodger. He’d ‘roughed him up’ whilst in his wolf form, whatever that meant, but he’d done it because the thief had threatened and hurt her. The archer had done that to _protect her_.

“Felicity isn’t on your list of pack members known to ARGUS,” Lyla said, raising her chin. “She hasn’t signed any ARGUS non-disclosure forms. So attacking the Dodger as you did under the pretence of protecting a pack member isn’t going to cut it for Waller, Oliver.”

“I don’t care about Waller’s opinion,” the archer seethed.

Frustrated, the ARGUS agent jabbed a finger into Oliver’s chest, challenging, “Really? Because she’s already angry about this. She wants a real explanation. And you know she’s not going to react well to finding out about Felicity being in the know and you not informing us of that.” After a brief pause, Lyla lowered her voice, her tone becoming more gentle as she asked, ”I don’t think we want a repeat of the freezer incident, do we, Oliver?”

Oliver went totally still, eyes slamming shut. It was disturbing how motionless he became within half a second, and he _shuddered._ Shaking his head, he whispered, “ _Don’t_ ,” his voice sounding so raw that it was heartbreaking.

“Oliver, _I’m sorry_. But you need to understand that I can’t cover up every single one of your messes from Waller. She’s going to find out about one of them eventually and then you’ll end up disciplined again. You need to start realising that you have to follow the ARGUS guidelines set out for you.”

“You didn’t need to bring up…”

“Considering bringing it up is the only way I’ve found that actually gets through to you, I did. I hate upsetting you, Oliver. I care about you, you know that. But I can’t help you if you’re not willing to help yourself.”

The wolf turned away, a broken sound erupting from his throat as he raked a trembling hand through his hair. Diggle and Felicity exchanged alarmed looks. Dig didn’t know about what this freezer incident was either, then. Considering how upset the archer was at the reminder of whatever happened, the freezer incident was very obviously a very bad, unpleasant past experience for him. Felicity felt unexpectedly furious; Lyla knew about what had happened to Oliver to scare him so much. And she was using knowledge of it as a last resort to control the wolf. Probably had done so before as well.

“Alright, I think we’re done here,” Felicity announced firmly, slipping her hand into the wolf’s and squeezing gently. His eyes flicked up to hers in confusion, and she despised the fact that he appeared unnerved. “C’mon. We’re going to the Foundry.”

“We are?” Oliver asked, sounding puzzled.

“Yup.”

He didn’t argue, just shrugging and after saying a short goodbye to Lyla, gesturing to Diggle that they should head over to the garages. When the wolf realised that Felicity wasn’t following them, he came to an abrupt halt. Oliver’s eyes flashed amber as his gaze flitted between the government agent and her worriedly. It was only once Felicity gave him a reassuring smile and motioned that he should go on, that she would be fine, that he left, albeit reluctantly. Felicity was left alone with Lyla, both of them standing on the lawn a few feet apart in silence as they watched the archer and bodyguard disappear around the corner.

“You know, I thought we could actually be friends up until the point where you deliberately brought up whatever the freezer incident is and it upset Oliver,” the blonde said stiffly.

“I didn’t _want_ to bring it up, honestly,” Lyla replied. “I was there, I know how much it affected him. I don’t try to deliberately upset him at all. But he can’t get it into that thick skull of his that Waller hates his guts and she’ll do something to him again, equally worse, if he doesn’t comply with ARGUS guidelines. Oliver wasn’t meant to recruit you without permission from me first, Felicity. You were meant to fill out about two dozen forms about confidentiality and safety and insurance options before he was even meant to _consider_ telling you about the vigilante and werewolf stuff.”

“Lycanthrope,” Felicity corrected shortly. “And Oliver didn’t exactly tell me. I found him half-dead in the back of my Mini that was parked at QC after he was shot with a silver bullet. He was _dying_. There wasn’t really any time for me to fill out any forms.”

Lyla stared at her intently, eyes slightly narrowed. “When did this happen?” she demanded. “Oliver didn’t report any major injury to us. He hasn’t reported any health concern since he was attacked by the Dark Archer and put into hospital at Christmas.”

Felicity just seemed to be accidentally getting Oliver into more and more trouble each minute she spoke to the ARGUS agent. “It was his mother that shot him,” the blonde admitted with a sigh. “Maybe he was embarrassed to tell you.”

“His _mother_ shot him with _silver bullets_?”

“Did you not see this on the news? Well, she didn’t know it was _him_ , obviously. She just knew he was the Vigilante. She didn’t know she was shooting her son.” Felicity frowned, a sudden thought popping into her mind. “Wait, if lycanthropy is genetic and Moira knows about it then…” Her eyes widened.

Lyla instantly came to the same conclusion. “She would have had herself tested. She would have had both Oliver and Thea tested too. She knows about Oliver.”

“Do you think he knows?”

“I doubt it,” the ARGUS agent groaned, running a hand over her face. “Dammit. Now I’m going to have to go digging through Starling General genetic records for Oliver’s file illegally to check when precisely Moira had him tested.”

“Right, because if she had him tested when he came back from the island, she’ll know that he’s an evolved form of lycanthrope,” Felicity nodded. This certainly wasn’t she expected she’d be having a conversation about when she woke up this morning. It was rather terrifying to think that Moira was aware of her son’s wolf status; if word on the street spread about the vigilante having the ability to transform into a wolf, the gig would be up for Oliver.

Offering the blonde her hand to shake in farewell, Lyla said seriously, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Felicity. I’ll look into it.” She cast a glance over Felicity’s shoulder. “You should probably go. Oliver’s waiting for you.”

“Should I tell him, or -”

“No,” Lyla shook her head firmly. “Give me a little time to do some research first. We don’t want Oliver freaking out over nothing, do we? I’ll text you if I find anything so you can tell him.”

“But you don’t have my - what am I saying, you’re a government operative, you probably have everybody’s cell numbers.”

Lyla smirked. “I’ll pass all the forms you need to fill out to Johnny to give to you. I’ll need them completed in about two days so I can get all your information entered into our systems. That way, you can become a registered member of Oliver’s pack, and next time Oliver’s wolf gets a little too overprotective and possessive over you, he won’t be breaking any ARGUS codes. I won’t have to come around every couple of days to yell at him - and more importantly, Waller won’t be able to punish Oliver.”

“And… when you say punishment, you’re referring to this freezer incident?” She was wary, but she desperately needed to know what that meant. She didn’t want to accidentally trigger Oliver in the future. “What… happened with that?”

A morose expression contorted Lyla’s face. “Okay, when I say the words ‘freezer incident’, try and interpret in your mind what you think that means.”

Felicity swallowed. She imagined a curled up, vulnerable Oliver locked in a bare, grey cell during the winter, with no heating or blankets of any kind, shivering due to the cold, and unable to transform into his wolf form due to how weak he was physically.

She must have appeared nauseous, because Lyla questioned in a low voice, “Bad, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Whatever you’re thinking of, what actually happened was at least ten times worse than that for Oliver.”

Felicity’s heart sank in her chest like a boulder crushing her stomach, so she felt as if she was going to throw up.

"Just don't ask him about it," Lyla suggested. "Or bring up freezers. And if it gets cold, make sure there's a blanket handy or the heaters are turned up."

A male voice called for Lyla, causing both women to turn. Who Felicity assumed was Johnson, the agent Lyla had been attempting to stick Oliver in their massive black SUV with on time-out, had his cell phone to his ear and was motioning for Lyla to hurry over.

“I’ve got to go,” Lyla said apologetically. “One of my other agents is most likely causing trouble. Waller always assigns the most incorrigible and reckless agents to my taskforce.”

“S’that how you ended up with Oliver?” Felicity asked, grinning.

“Oliver was destined to be on Taskforce X no matter how he behaved,” Lyla admitted with a small shrug. “A werewolf vigilante archer is one in a billion. It was nice to meet you, Felicity. I’ll see you again soon, inevitably.”

Felicity watched as the ARGUS agent left, clambering into the black SUV and driving away. Shaking herself off, she began walking in the direction of where Diggle and Oliver had gone, intent on finding them so they could get to the Foundry quickly. She couldn’t help but wonder why exactly the wolf hadn’t told her before that he was a government-sanctioned vigilante. If Oliver had ARGUS breathing down his neck all the team, and they were aware of his wolf status… did that technically mean that everything Oliver was doing, shooting criminals, destroying gangs and shutting down crime rings - as well as leaving a body count in his wake - was legal? But if that were so, why were the SCPD hunting him? Was ARGUS not communicating to the police about the vigilante being a government agent? If not, _why_ not?

She didn’t realise she was about to trip down a step until Felicity went practically flying, falling with a yelp. Strong arms wrapped around her waist and hauled her upright before Felicity could hit the ground. Whipping around, the blonde flushed a deep red when she was met by Oliver’s disapproving the expression, the wolf sweeping his gaze over her with bright, worried blue eyes.

“Careful!” he sniped.

“Sorry,” she blushed. Before she could properly register what she was doing, Felicity gently squeezed one of Oliver’s biceps and blurted out in shock, “Holy cheeseballs, your arms are huge.”

The archer didn’t laugh, but he did snort lightly in amusement. “Not as huge as Diggle’s,” he said. “Why weren’t you looking where you were going?”

“Lost in thought.”

“Yes, well, I can’t have you getting hurt,” Oliver muttered, finally releasing her from his tight hold and taking a step back. Felicity had to confess she was a little bit disappointed - the wolf’s arms encasing her had made her feel secure and cared about. “Diggle’s waiting for us.”

“Right, we should get to the Foundry,” Felicity nodded. “Since I have the day off work, I’ll be able to get some proper prep work done before tonight we -”

“- take the night off and go out for margaritas,” Oliver interrupted.

“Oh,” the blonde breathed.

“You deserve a break,” Oliver said. “Your life was put on the line last night but we ultimately succeeded and finished the mission. We caught the bad guy - the Dodger’s in jail.”

“Although he doesn’t have complete use of his legs,” Felicity murmured.

The wolf winced.

“Sorry! Sorry,” the blonde rushed out. “I’m not - angry or anything. I’m actually relieved? The Dodger deserved it.”

“He did,” Oliver agreed vehemently. “He deserved the pain.”

Their conversation was abruptly halted by Diggle driving the Queens’ black sedan out of the garage, braking in front of both of them. Rolling his window down, Diggle peered out and ordered, “Get in loser, we’re going shopping.”

Felicity burst into giggles, sliding into the back with a snickered, “Nice reference.”

Oliver didn’t move, just frowning as he asked in confusion, “We’re going shopping?”

“You were shipwrecked in 2007, not in 2004,” Diggle said. “You have no excuses for not knowing Mean Girls.”

“I’m just amazed you know what Mean Girls is,” the blonde commented.

“I know pop culture,” Diggle said. “Unlike Mr Dinosaur,”

“I’m a wolf, not a dinosaur,” Oliver grumbled, sliding onto the sedan’s backseat next to Felicity. He turned to her as the car moved off, saying hesitantly, “You have questions?”

“About what being in your pack means, yes,” she nodded. “Especially since I didn’t really get the choice to join…”

“Nobody ever does,” Diggle cut in. “I didn’t.”

“Dig,” the wolf said warningly.

“Thea didn’t. She doesn’t even know she’s in your pack. Or that you’re a werewolf.”

“Stop,” Oliver growled. His expression and voice softened when he addressed Felicity again, explaining, “My wolf accepted you and now regards you as pack due to instinct. You’ve protected me, helped me… in return, I’ve helped you. You don’t have to do anything as a pack member except look after yourself and understand that I’m going to be -”

“Overprotective and overbearing, constantly stalking you -”

“ _Diggle_ ,” the wolf barked. “I was going to say ‘looking out for your safety’.”

“So I don’t have to… submit to you or service you or -”

“Oh god no,” Oliver immediately shot down, shaking his head. “No, not at all. Technically, I will be your alpha wolf, but in all practicality, I’m everybody in Starling City’s alpha wolf, so that’s nothing special. There’s nothing else to pack membership really…”

“He’s clingy and affectionate because he’s touch starved,” Diggle provided from the front. That explained why Oliver had been so cuddly and attentive last night and this morning. “He likes scratches under his chin and treats.”

“You know, you’re really testing my patience,” the archer snapped. “You’re certainly more talkative now than you were when Lyla was biting my ass off about things that weren’t under my control.”

“Um, the Dodger totally was under your control,” Diggle pointed out. “And you never communicate properly to her when you’re meant to, even after I advise you to, so you kind of did deserve to get shouted at.”

“Alright, boys, settle down,” Felicity commanded, a smile tugging at her lips. She was always entertained by their little testosterone fuelled spats. “No need to bare any canines.”

They both grumbled but quietened.

After a moment, Oliver leaned in to whisper in Felicity’s ear, “But I would totally win any canine-baring contest.” She stifled her snicker. “I would, though, let’s be honest.”

Once they arrived at the Foundry, Diggle and Oliver went off to train and spar whilst Felicity began some research on people on the List, compiling information to make a folder full of profiles. In the future, if the archer ever decided to go after the people, the pre-prepared profiles would definitely save time for them all. She set up an algorithm to collect any new information or files on the internet and automatically dump it into the profile, using specific search words. Diggle left to fetch take-out for lunch at some point, and about halfway through the work, Felicity changed into fluffy socks and lowered her chair so she was at the right height to support her chin on her hand as she typed with the other hand.

Just as she was starting her second to last profile, a heavy, warm weight settled on Felicity’s thighs. She frowned, but remained focused on compressing and transferring credit card information. It was only once the weight rumbled deeply, causing vibrations through her legs that Felicity paused in her searches and glance down. She was proud to say that she barely reacted at all to finding Oliver in his giant shifted wolf form, resting his head on her lap and gazing up at her with doleful amber eyes, that were tinged with blue specks. 

Giving him a small smile, Felicity resumed typing with her dominant hand, but used her other to tenderly scratch between the wolf’s ears, running her fingers through the sandy fur. His fur here was a lot less wiry and much softer than the rest of his body. Oliver’s low purring indicated that he was enjoying it, his ears flicking back and forward every so often as her fingertips brushed over them.

It was immensely soothing, surprisingly. Sure, Oliver was a massive wolf that could snap her hand off within half a second, not a therapy dog, but she was still getting a feeling of calmness and happiness from petting him. Was petting the correct word? That was essentially what she was doing. But Oliver wasn’t a pet. Felicity suddenly stopped, a little weirded out; this was _Oliver_. If he were in human form and not wolf form, this would be very strange, as they weren’t a couple or anything.

“Last night, when you slept at the foot of the bed,” Felicity murmured, eyes darting over her code on the screen. “That was a pack affection thing?”

The wolf snorted in response.

“But you’re never usually that affectionate with Diggle,” she continued, frowning. “Does this mean you’re going to be all touchy-feely with me all the time now?”

Oliver growled.

“Alright, mister, you can stop growling. You’re not touchy-feely. You’re a tough, hardened vigilante.”

He humphed in agreement.

“But you really like me scratching between your ears, don’t you?”

A crash from behind caused Oliver to yelp and dart under her monitor desk and Felicity to twist around in her chair. Diggle was standing and staring in disbelief at the sight he’d been greeted with upon his return, Big Belly Burger bag lying sideways on the ground and spilling fries.

“What the hell?” the bodyguard exclaimed.

The wolf was cowering behind Felicity’s legs, trying to hide in the shadows as he released a resounding rumble. He was so big, however, that he hardly fit underneath the desk and was mostly exposed. Felicity tried to calm him down by shushing him gently, but Oliver just shot her an intense golden glare. It was when the blonde turned back to Diggle that she realised that the reason Oliver was hiding was due to the fact that the bodyguard had his hand resting on the holster of his handgun, and was pulling it out.

“Dig, it’s fine,” she said hurriedly. “Don’t get your gun out. It’s Oliver.”

“I know it’s Oliver. But is it _Oliver_ who is in control or is it his wolf?”

Oh. _Oh._ So Diggle thought of the archer and the wolf as separate. That was why he was so wary of Oliver’s canine form. He thought that the wolf didn’t have Oliver’s self-control and simply operated on wild instinct.

Felicity raised her chin. “Oliver and his wolf are one in the same. He’s just been sitting next to me, watching me work. It’s _okay_. Now put your gun away.”

Diggle ignored her order to narrow his eyes, questioning suspiciously, “Has he scared you at all?”

“Oliver is the only one scared right now, because he thinks you’re going to shoot him,” Felicity insisted.

“Oh.” Diggle quickly clicked the safety and put his gun it to the side on the weapons counter, and then moving so he was standing a few feet away. “Sorry.”

“Oliver _is_ his wolf, Dig,” Felicity muttered, swivelling back around to face her screens and reaching under the desk, beckoning Oliver to re-approach her. She smiled when she felt the wolf’s cold, wet nose bump at her palm before he nudged his head into her hand fully, emerging from his hiding place to settle back onto his haunches next to her. “He has full control over his actions and emotions. I don’t know whatever gave you the idea otherwise.”

The bodyguard picked up the dropped Big Belly Burger bag with a sheepish expression, placing it on his stool as he rustled through it to grab their food. “How are you so calm?” Diggle asked her, confused. He handed over her cheeseburger, fries and vanilla milkshake, but kept a fair distance away from the wolf, as if nervous Oliver might lash out at him. Felicity didn’t blame him. Diggle had pretty much pointed his gun at Oliver, and the wolf might not be too happy about that. “You don’t seem freaked out at all.”

“Oliver was in his wolf form when he arrived at the Queen mansion last night,” Felicity admitted. “I saw him and got over my shock then.” She fed Oliver a fry, grinning as he took it carefully from her fingers and then wolfed it down with a smirk, licking his lips. “He’s not really that scary. See?” She stroked over his head, smiling when the wolf seemed to smirk at her.

Diggle regarded her with a bemused look. “If you say so.” He tried to hesitantly extend his fingers to touch Oliver’s tawny fur, but jumped back when the wolf whipped around and snarled at him, hackles rising. His growl was half-hearted, and he seemed more miffed at the fact his bodyguard had been thinking about shooting him than angry. “Yeah, nope.”

“If you stop getting your gun out whenever you see him in wolf form, maybe Oliver will stop acting so hostile towards you, and he’ll let you touch him,” Felicity suggested.

“I’m fine with not touching him,” Diggle said. “I’m fine with not touching him _at all_. Oliver, you might want to shift back if you want your burger. I’m not hand-feeding you, Felicity isn’t going to be either, and the floor is unsanitary.”

The wolf stood and stretched out, muscles rippling under his sandy blond fur and revealing his scars. Oliver trotted away to the corner, flicking his tail over Felicity’s legs as he left, and barely giving Diggle a passing goodbye. He vanished from sight, swallowed up into the darkness of the unlit side of the Foundry, and then moments later returned in human form, dressed apart from his t-shirt, which he was yanking over his head. There was still a faint hint of amber in his blue eyes, showing that his wolf was still lurking below the surface, but when he quirked an eyebrow at them both he was fully human Oliver.

“Felicity’s right, you’ve really got to stop pointing your gun at me,” he mumbled, grabbing his burger out of the bag and hopping up onto one of the counters to eat. “My wolf is me, and has my thoughts and restraint, but he also has his own instincts. He doesn’t like you.” The use of the third-person pronouns was a bit worrying, but Felicity let it slide because Oliver was distracted and feeding fries into his mouth.

“Your wolf doesn’t like me?”

“You keep threatening to shoot me,” the archer rolled his eyes. “If I kept on threatening to shoot you, would you like me?”

“You do keep threatening to shoot me, and no, not really.”

“I don’t need you to like me for me to protect you as one of my pack members,” Oliver shrugged. “So I really don’t care.”

“I was kidding, Oliver.”

The wolf wrinkled his nose. “Humans and their sarcasm and jokes.”

Ah, a perfect opportunity for her to utilise some of her amazing dog puns. “I’m sure Diggle doesn’t mean to keep _hounding_ you,” Felicity said innocently.

The wolf glowered at her. “No margaritas for you tonight.”

“Aw, c’mon! I know it’s been a bit of a _ruff_ and tumble with the dog puns, but I’m sure once you’re used to them we’ll be having a _howling_ good time.”

Oliver shook his head and walked away. Felicity grinned at the beginnings of a smile she could see on his face.

“ _Fur_ what it’s worth, at least my puns aren’t that ap _paw_ ling!”

“Felicity.”

“I’m sorry that my dog puns are so _corgi_.”

“Stop.”

“Never.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed :) Please leave kudos and comment!
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos, or comment :) It is greatly appreciated.


End file.
